Raising investment in its U.S.-based airplane unit to $100 million as the company expands into aviation from autos, car parts like , motorcycles and engines, Honda Motor Co. will spend nearly $40 million for its first jet-aircraft factory.
In a statement, the company said that the plant construction began in June 27 on the Honda Aircraft Co. facilities in Greensboro, North Carolina. The first phase of the project will be finished next year and HondaJet deliveries will start in 2010. Consequently, the Tokyo-based company said that eventual workforce will total to about 350 people.
Spokeswoman Alicia Jones said in a June 27 interview that the factory portion should open by 2009 in order to allow them to meet their target of delivering HondaJets by 2010. At the site, Honda is also building the unit's headquarters.
The largest engine producer in the world and Japan's second-largest carmaker will compete in aircraft manufacturing with Textron Inc.'s Cessna, the world's largest business-jet maker. Honda has said it has more than 100 orders for its $3.65 million HondaJet, which can accommodate as many as eight people.
The company has said that its aircraft, which is powered by two Honda- designed engines mounted over the wings, will be more fuel- efficient and offer more standard features than competing small jets. The Japanese company is preparing three of the planes for test flights before 2008 ends for U.S. Federal Aviation Administration certification.
In February, the company said that it would spend almost $60 million on the aircraft facilities, with additional investment for the manufacturing portion which will be announced later.
With the company's U.S. operations based in Torrance, California, its American depositary receipts climbed 39 cents to $35.6 at 4:02 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. This year, they have fallen 9.8 percent.
About HondaJet
Soichiro Honda, the company's founder, has long ago aspired of applying his company's technological expertise to the world of aviation. In effect, a young Honda engineer named Michimasa Fujino put that vision into realization in 1986, as he started research and development into an advanced, air-bound Honda. And now, after 20 years of passion and hard work, Mr. Fujino and his team have created HondaJet.
Mr. Fujino supervises the development, production and sales in HondaJet as CEO of Honda Aircraft Company, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Honda Motor Co., Ltd. The aircraft company is based at the Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, North Carolina, U.S.A.
