On the Record with
ANGELO FIATARUOLO, PRESIDENT, PILATUS BUSINESS AIRCRAFT

The PC-12 Generates Surprising Loyalty

Angelo Fiataruolo, president of Pilatus Business Aircraft, has spent part of his first full year on the job getting to know an eclectic mix of people who have decided that the unglamorous but practical PC-12 is the ideal solution to their transportation needs.

"They're like fanatical Porsche owners," he says. At this summer's EAA Oskhosh fly-in, the PC-12 owners' group asked for a space in the Pilatus booth, and Fiataruolo credits them with supporting many PC-12 sales. "It's a close-knit group. They have no reluctance to giving me a call with their opinions."

So far, the owners have not asked for many changes to the aircraft. "We're not talking about three engines or a bigger cabin." However, the company is examining what the avionics will look like "in two or three years' time," and is working with both Honeywell--the current avionics vendor--and other suppliers on a cockpit that embodies the latest big-screen technology. For an aircraft that sells itself to owner-operators on being easy to fly, this will be an important improvement.

U.S.-based owner-operators, almost all of them with a single aircraft, are the backbone of the PC-12 market. There are just under 200 of them: of the 300+ PC-12s in the air today, eight out of ten are in North America, and most of those are in the U.S. The second-largest group in North America comprises commuter transports in Canada. Nearly all the U.S. aircraft are owner-operated.

Fiataruolo says PC-12 buyers are still drawn to the aircraft because its single-engine design avoids twin-engine handling problems; because it is a modern design; and because of its honest performance, including short takeoffs and long range with a real payload. "A full PC-12 has more of its theoretical range available than any aircraft it sells against," says Fiataruolo. Consistently on the buyer'slist, and unique to the PC-12, is the oversized, hydraulically actuated second door, combined with a rapidly convertible cabin and movable cargo net. Comparisons with Range Rovers come to mind.

Sales have not reached expected levels this year, says Fiataruolo, because of the stock market's problems, but a healthy backlog has meant that deliveries are up slightly, to the mid-to-upper 50s in the U.S. Worldwide sales will exceed last year's 69 aircraft. Pilatus Business Aircraft, which is responsible for all the Americas, is making a new sales push in Mexico and South America, with an emphasis on public transport operations.

Pilatus Aircraft's former owner, the high-tech Swiss conglomerate Unaxis, sold the company earlier this year to a mostly Swiss consortium of investors. They plan to develop the company and sell it in an initial public offering in three-to-four years' time. Fiataruolo expects that the move will be good for the PC-12. "We anticipate that we'll be able to do more business aviation things when we have owners who knew that they were buying into business aviation," he says. "There will be more focus than we had when we were part of a conglomerate."

The PC-12's niche success in the U.S. business market was not entirely expected by Pilatus, but has grown the company and stabilized a business that was formerly dominated by the very competitive military trainer aircraft market. The new owners are continuing to invest in the new, closely-held PC-21, designed as the ultimate turboprop trainer for the military market and due to fly late this year, but the PC-12 will continue to be its core product.

-Bill Sweetman