Zean Nielsen, CEO, Cirrus Aircraft claims the G2 Cirrus Vision Jet offers “the flexibility to fly privately without the jet price tag”.
COVER STORY CIRRUS AIRCRAFT
‘JUST HIT THE RED BUTTON’
About 90% of Cirrus Vision Jet sales are to pilot owners. But charter companies and corporate flight departments are becoming more interested in the seven-seat personal jet. Words: (From the left-hand seat) Mike Stones
COVER STORY CIRRUS AIRCRAFT
‘JUST HIT THE RED BUTTON’
About 90% of Cirrus Vision Jet sales are to pilot owners. But charter companies and corporate flight departments are becoming more interested in the seven-seat personal jet. Words: (From the left-hand seat) Mike Stones
Zean Nielsen, CEO, Cirrus Aircraft claims the G2 Cirrus Vision Jet offers “the flexibility to fly privately without the jet price tag”.
“IF ANYTHING HAPPENS to me, just press the red button to activate the Garmin Safe Return system. For extra back up, there’s the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System [CAPS] activated by the red handle.” I’m sitting in the left-hand captain’s seat of a sleek, grey G2 Cirrus Vision Jet. Beside me is Matt Bergwall, director, Vision Jet Product Line at Cirrus Aircraft. (Luckily, I'm glad to see he looks fit and super healthy).
We are sitting on the ramp outside Cirrus Aircraft’s hangar at Tyson McGhee Airport, Knoxville, Tennessee. It’s a clear, sunny October day, with a light southerly breeze. After the safety briefing, he lets me take the feather light controls to taxi out to runway 23 Right for our short flight over the Great Smoky Mountains.
It’s a familiar routine for Bergwall. He spends a good deal of time introducing pilots – many of them prospective owners – to the highly distinctive personal jet.
Owner pilots account for about 90% of Vision Jet sales, Zean Nielsen, CEO Cirrus Aircraft tells me before the flight. But that looks like changing, as the aircraft becomes popular with short haul charter operators, such as Verijet, and with growing interest from corporate flight departments. In 2021, the manufacturer sold 86 Vision Jets, with a list price of between $3m-$3.5m and was on course to better that last year.
“The personal jet can bring aviation to the masses. Think of it as a luxury SUV with wings.”
“It’s intended for entrepreneurs, business owners and frequent travellers, who like flying and want to use the aircraft for business and leisure,” says Nielsen. “They want the flexibility to fly privately and the jet experience without the jet price tag.”
The company’s business model extends beyond simply selling aircraft – whether that’s the Vision Jet or its single-engine propellor driven sisters, the SR20, SR22 and the SR22T. “Jet ownership can be a daunting prospect for new owners,” the former Tesla executive tells me. “Part of the business model is [helping clients] buying into an awesome ecosystem and the ownership experience, so that we can bring more people into aviation.”
He lists the difficulties facing prospective owners: The process of learning to fly the jet, finding a place to train, ownership, maintenance, insurance and installing upgrades. “Since the Vision Jet was introduced in 2016, we have built an ecosystem to do all that in supporting personal jet owners,” says Nielsen. “It makes it way easier to become a jet pilot and to transact the purchase of a jet”
Data: G2 Vision Jet
Cruise control: The Cirrus Jet is intended for the entrepreneur who enjoys flying for business and leisure.
Red spells safety. The red handle (top left) activates the Vision Jet’s Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS). Nearby is the button to activate the Garmin Safe Return system.
Red spells safety. The red handle (top left) activates the Vision Jet’s Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS). Nearby is the button to activate the Garmin Safe Return system.
Seven up. The Vision Jet can accommodate up to seven passengers.
Ready to go. A Cirrus SR22 patiently awaits its next mission.
But why personal jet? It’s a description Nielsen prefers to the term private jet – not least because of the vast market he thinks such aircraft promise to unlock. “The philosophy of the private jet is exclusive to a few people. But the personal jet can bring aviation to the masses. Think of it as a luxury SUV [sports utility vehicle] with wings that can take you wherever you want to go – with the ultimate safety package in Safe Return and CAPS.”
He’s referring to Garmin’s Safe Return Emergency Autoland system, for which Cirrus, in partnership with Garmin, secured the prestigious Richard J. Collier trophy. Cutting a path through complex avionics, Nielsen summarises: “If the pilot becomes incapacitated, the passenger can literally reach up and press the red button and the plane will land itself.”
Cirrus aircraft are also fitted with a parachute safety system, which in real life, has been used several times to save the pilot and crew from otherwise irredeemable flight emergencies. This too won the Robert J. Collier Trophy.
Safe Return has never been activated in an emergency involving the Vision Jet. The company regards the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System as the primary safety system pilots use in the event of an emergency. CAPS has been deployed twice in the Vision Jet and more in SR Series aircraft. “To date, Vision Jet CAPS events have been 100% successful and have returned all passengers (four people) home safely,” a spokeswoman told me. “Collectively, CAPS events in the SR Series and Vision Jets are responsible for returning over 240 people home safely.”
Safety is far from the sole selling point, according to the Cirrus CEO. Key benefits include low operational costs, reduced emissions compared with bigger private jets and the perception of a mission appropriate aircraft, he says.
These are arguments buyers appear to find compelling – particularly in these increasingly cost-conscious times. "We have a very large backlog and are taking orders three to four years out,” he says. The company’s order book for the Vision Jet has about 400 reservations with a combined value topping $1bn. “People buy the Vision Jet safe in the knowledge that if they want to trade up to something bigger, the aircraft will retain a high residual value.”
Most Vision Jet owners fly the aircraft themselves on both business missions and leisure trips. Typically, mid-size business owners, they benefit from tax relief on their jet purchase.
Ownership is not confined to individuals. “What we are seeing now is interest from charter companies like Verijet,” says Nielsen. The firm operates 24 Vision Jets, including both aircraft in revenue service and others dedicated to repositioning flights and crew training. Popular passenger flights are regional hops, such as Los Angeles to San Francisco or New York to Boston. “You really don’t need a much bigger jet to fly these missions because you can’t get them to altitude before you need to let down again,” he says. “Most corporate jets fly with one or two passengers for fewer than two hours. So, they are really using a truck when they need a bike. It doesn’t need to be that expensive.”
Operating costs for the Cirrus Vision Jet are estimated at about a third of those incurred by a typical medium-sized private jet, according to the manufacturer.
Covid seems to have been kind to the Vision Jet. “There’s a bunch of entrepreneurs who had the means and inclination to learn to fly but not the time. Suddenly, Covid gave them the the time to learn to fly – and the need to complete business missions,” says Nielsen. Owner pilots vary in age from their late 20s to their mid 80s, with the sweet spot being around the mid-50s. “Typical buyers have flown for a decade or so, truly enjoy flying and want to take their family to the beach but also use the aircraft for business, particularly with the downturn in regional airline services.”
“Cirrus plays in a $20bn sandbox or marketplace.”
It’s not just owner investors who are warming to the promise of lower operator costs, fewer emissions and a mission appropriate aircraft. The jet appears to be finding favour with some corporate flight departments. “We see companies parallel buying Vision Jets for what we call supplemental lift,” Nielsen explains. “Maybe the CEO or CFO [chief financial officer] uses a big bird for international or cross-country flights. But for smaller, regional hops for chief technical officer or engineers, the Vision Jet is perfect.”
Adding together potential purchases from individual owners, charter companies and corporate flight departments, Nielsen sees huge potential for the Vision Jet and other SR Series propellor planes in the Cirrus portfolio. “Cirrus plays in a $20bn sandbox or marketplace,” he tells me. “We would like to dominate the market for jets below $6m. With the Vision Jet retailing between $3m to $3.5m, there is quite a bit of room above us, with a lot of units at $8m and down.”
It’s a sharply contested market segment. The Cessna Citation M2 has a list price of up to $5.17m, while an Embraer Phenom 100EV costs about $4.75m and the HondaJet Elite ll carries a base price tag of $6.95m. That compares with $4.05m for a new Pilatus PC12NG or $11.9m for the PC-24 jet.
So, with spiralling costs for energy, materials and labour, is Nielsen worried about the prospect of recession denting sales? Recessions and inflationary environments are difficult to deal with, he agrees. “But the playbook of how to navigate them, if you run a responsible business, is pretty well defined,” he says. “Eventually, some good things will come from this, including responsible spending and flushing out the speculative companies that drove part of the labour shortage and costs in the first place.”
Our conversation ends on an upbeat note: “Aviation is a long game. Its future is very bright and demand is strong, especially for solid companies with good products and services.”
Back in the Vision Jet on runway 23R at Tyson McGhee Airport, captain Bergwall’s hands hovered over the yoke, as he let me experience the thrill of take-off. At altitude, he showed me how to dial in the required heading, altitude and speed into the aircraft’s control system before we surveyed the early autumn colours of the Smoky Mountains from 2,000ft. Cockpit design and handling characteristics – apart, of course, from the speed – were similar to the Cirrus SR22 I flew later in the day. (I can see how easy it would be for owners to step up from the manufacturer’s prop plane to jet).
About 40 minutes later, my Piper Cub flying skills exhausted, Bergwall takes control for the approach and the smoothest of smooth touch downs. My landing would have been just as good, I secretly think – with only 5,000 hours more practice.
Safely suspended: The Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) boasts a 100% success rate.
A fast mover, the G2 Vision Jet has a cruise speed of 305ktas.
Companies are “parallel buying Vision Jets for supplemental lift”, says Zean Nielsen, CEO, Cirrus Aircraft.
