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Citizens Bank to sell Private Jets

Citizen’s bank is joining the “band wagon” of corporations that are selling their corporate jets to cutback on expenditures.

“This is part of the bank’s cost reductions due to the economic environment,” said Mike Jones, Citizens Bank spokesman. The Providence, R.I.-based bank will be selling its two private jets.

Recently, two banks are performing similar cost-cutting approaches, including Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co.  

Bank of America announced last month that they will be selling two jets from its eight-jet fleet. On the other hand, Wells Fargo & Co. said they will sell five or six of its eight-jet fleet.

According to Wells Fargo spokeswoman Melissa Murray, the jets are being sold because they are not essential for business.

As a result, jet manufacturers are feeling the economic pinch. Renowned manufacturers Cessna and Gulfstream have already minimized production goals for 2009.

“Once the economic environment changed, we saw customers unable to find financing for their aircraft and hesitant to make a big purchase,” commented Doug Oliver, a representative of Cessna. “We saw a lot of orders deferred.”

The sales decline has been amplified by public perception. “It started with the Detroit CEOs,” mentioned Charles Mayer, VP of marketing for Hawker Beechcraft Corp., an aircraft manufacturer. “It sent the wrong message at an inopportune time.”