In April 2013, Air Tractor delivered its 500th AT-802A, the company’s popular 800-gallon capacity ag aircraft. Soon after, the company’s 3,000th aircraft rolled off its production line.
Hirsch attributes the record production numbers to continued domestic demand and growing international demand for agricultural equipment. “Global sales of agricultural equipment, including ag aircraft, are expected to grow in the coming years, driven primarily by sales gains in rapidly developing nations as farming sectors address the need to become more efficient and productive,” says Hirsch.
Additional employees, manufacturing improvements and efficiencies at Air Tractor have helped to keep aircraft rolling off the production line for delivery to customers, reports Hirsch. Additionally, the company recently completed a major expansion and reorganization of its customer service department. “The overall work flow and parts inventory layout has been redesigned, and the expanded facilities and streamlined processes promise a great deal of increased efficiency,” says Hirsch. “With more and more Air Tractor aircraft working around the world, we’ve boosted our product support capabilities so that customers will continue to receive the kind of responsive support that they’ve come to expect from us.”
As for 2014, Hirsch says he sees a bright outlook. “Aircraft orders for 2014 have been picking up in the last several months. It looks like next year will be a good one for Air Tractor.”
