March 29, 2011 – Diamond Aircraft has announced the temporary lay-off of 213 employees at
its London, Ont., facility. The job cuts affect mostly D-JET program
employees, temporarily suspending D-JET program work pending the arrangement
of external financing. There is no direct impact on other Diamond
operations.
We are disappointed and frustrated in the extreme to have to take this
action. We had deferred these cost cutting measures as long as possible,
while awaiting a positive response to our request for a federal government
loan. At this time we are still awaiting a formal response,² said Peter
Maurer, President of Diamond Aircraft Industries Inc.. ³We are hopeful that
the government will give this matter urgent attention and provide the
requested assistance, following which we would immediately recall our
furloughed employees and get our program back on track. We will be
contacting our D-JET customers individually to further detail the impact of
these actions and our plans for the way forward.
The D-JET program is over 60% complete but increased program costs and
delays, coupled with the overall depressed current state of the general
aviation industry, have required Diamond to seek external funding to
complete the program. Diamond has arranged for all but $ 35 M to complete
the program and has turned to the Canadian federal government to support the
company with a fully repayable loan. The federal government loan is key,
because it not only completes the required funding, but also triggers the
other arranged financing commitments.
Diamond has invested very heavily to create the infrastructure and
technology that enable D-JET. Diamond intends to leverage the technology
developed for the D-JET to develop an entire family of future aircraft, much
as the original HK 36 motorglider spawned the company's successful line of
piston engine airplanes.
For more information about Diamond Aircraft (North America) visit
Diamondaircraft.com
For more information about Diamond Aircraft (International) visit
Diamond-air.at
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