MARKET DEMAND AND MARKET SEGMENTS

摘要

For the past five years we have experienced a general upward trend in demand for new turbine and piston helicopters, based on FAA registration data. Refer to sales in TABLE 1, which includes U.S. operators only and excludes new helicopters sold to resale dealers. As TABLE 1 illustrates, combined sales of new turbine and piston helicopters reached a high of 325 units in 2003, which exceeded the past five-year average only once, in 2001 when sales reached a total of 333 units. 2003 sales were an improvement over the past five-year average by about 9 percent, justifying the conclusion of an upward trend position though, at less than one percent per year, the trend is not exciting.