12 March 2007
Single-engine composite manufacturer Columbia Aircraft has laid off 59 of its workforce of around 600. The company says that it has been forced into the action by a series of unfortunate events, including a freak hailstorm last year which damaged the paintwork on 60 aircraft (all of which had to be repainted/restored) and a delay in the certification of the G1000 ‘glass cockpit’ installation.
These events meant that it was unable to deliver as many aircraft in 2006 as it would have liked – despite actually <a href=”newsfeed.php?artnum=424″>shipping a record number of aircraft</a>.
The company had tried to cope by losing workers ‘through attrition’; however, in the end it was necessary to enforce the layoffs.
The company remains insistent that the future looks rosy, and that the order book remains healthy.
Columbia manufactures the Columbia 350 and Columbia 400 composite aircraft.
