With private jet sales taking a sharp downturn, Diamond Aircraft is laying off more than one quarter of its employees in London. Today, the aircraft manufacturer announced that it is “temporarily” retrenching 180 employees out of a workforce of 684.

“Our industry has been particularly hard hit. The sales of luxury goods such as private airplanes have gone down with consumer confidence,” said company president Peter Maurer. He mentioned that the production cuts represent a decline in orders for Diamond’s four-seater DA40. These planes sell for about $260,000 to $340,000, depending on the options.

The recession has managed to dwindle the budgets of the higher-income buyers, which are typically the target market of private jet manufacturers. “A lot of them have seen their investments dwindle [referring to their target market] . . . If you just lost a lot of money on the market, buying an airplane is not a priority,” claimed Maurer.  

Maurer claimed that they will call back the retrenched employees as soon as the economy recovers. “We will be calling these people back, but it is hard to tell when because it depends on the general market,” Maurer concluded.