OREANDA-NEWS. Cessna Aircraft Company, a subsidiary of Textron Aviation Inc., a Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) company, today announced it has delivered the first fractional Cessna Citation Latitude midsize business jet to NetJets, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway company. Today’s delivery represents significant milestones for both NetJets and the Citation product line. This aircraft represents the 7,000th Citation delivered worldwide, reinforcing the Citation family as the established leader in business jet travel.

To celebrate this milestone delivery, NetJets and Textron Aviation held a special ceremony today at Textron Aviation headquarters in Wichita. During the ceremony, NetJets announced that due to owners’ great response to the Latitude, the company has added 50 more options to its initial order placed in 2012, bringing its total order and options up to 200 aircraft.

“The Cessna and NetJets relationship extends more than 20 years and our newest certified business jet is a perfect fit for their operations,” said Scott Ernest, President and CEO, Textron Aviation. “The Citation Latitude’s performance and value proposition equates to increased productivity for NetJets’ owners, while giving them large-cabin amenities at a midsize cost. We are thrilled the aircraft has become one of the fastest selling aircraft in NetJets’ history.”

NetJets has been operating two demonstrator aircraft throughout the United States and Europe to showcase the Citation Latitude to NetJets owners ahead of the aircraft entering its fleet.

“The midsize Citation Latitude business jet gives our owners and their guests best-in-class performance, size and comfort. As the newest NetJets offering, the Citation Latitude is a great addition to our fleet of the world’s best aircraft,” said Adam Johnson, CEO, NetJets. “With the Latitude we will continue giving owners unparalleled service and safety, while advancing our long term relationship with Textron Aviation.”

NetJets’ first Latitude is expected to enter into service in July and will be part of the fractional provider’s North American fleet that includes four other Cessna models: Citation Encore/Encore+, Citation Excel/XLS, Citation Sovereign and Citation X aircraft.

With a maximum range of 2,850 nautical miles, the Citation Latitude can fly non-stop from key U.S. cities such as Los Angeles to New York and Chicago to San Francisco. With a flat floor and six feet of cabin height, the Latitude affords the most open, spacious, bright and refined cabin environment in the midsize category. Improving cabin comfort for passengers and crew alike, the Latitude features a new cabin cooling system and a new pressurization system. The system provides a 5,950-foot cabin altitude when the aircraft is at its maximum operating altitude of 45,000 feet, allowing owners to arrive at their destinations feeling more refreshed.

Cessna began deliveries of the Citation Latitude last August and has delivered 23 to customers around the world through the first quarter of 2016.

7000th Citation
Citation aircraft, now with 7,000 delivered, are the most popular line of business jets in the world. With more than 35 million flight hours – far more than any of its competitors – Citation aircraft allow customers to expand their business reach.

Since Cessna delivered its first Citation in 1972, the Citation brand continues to set the standard in the business jet market. Citation jets are renowned for their ability to combine reliability, efficiency and comfort with advanced technology and class-leading performance. This unique combination has resulted in a level of unparalleled quality Citation operators around the globe have come to know and value.

“Throughout the years, the Citation line has evolved to meet the growing needs of our customers and their missions,” Ernest said. “Smart innovation and continuous product investments define our Citation models today. From our leadership in the light jet category with our class-leading Citation M2, CJ3+ and CJ4, up to our latest introduction of the revolutionary super-midsize Citation Longitude, we are pairing decades of proven reliability and performance with the latest technology into the broadest product lineup of jets in the industry.”

Each of Cessna’s Citation models is designed to strike an enviable balance between high performance, comfort and cost-efficient operation. No other family of business jets offers such a seamless progression of aircraft with extraordinary capabilities for the value proposition. There are currently eight Citation models in production including the Citation Mustang, Citation M2, Citation CJ3+, Citation CJ4, Citation XLS+, Citation Latitude, Citation Sovereign+ and Citation X±. The company’s latest Citations in development include the super-midsize Citation Longitude, on schedule to fly this summer, and the Citation Hemisphere, Cessna’s entry into the large-cabin market and planned to fly in 2019.