While other media outlets are blasting the news that HondaJet is expanding at PTI, the N&R ledes with a slightly different angle:
Honda Aircraft’s top executive said Monday that production of the HondaJet has been delayed yet again but reiterated his desire to carry out a major expansion plan at Piedmont Triad International Airport.
The production delay will be the third for the $4.5 million light business jet since 2009.
“It is regrettable news,” Michimasa Fujino, president and CEO of Honda Aircraft Co., said in an interview. “But at the same time I do not want to give up. I never give up.”
Fujino went on to say he “still wants to expand his operation at PTI by $80 million and more than 400 jobs over the next five years,” but “could not immediately be determined” how many jobs the intital $20 million expansion would create.
Maybe I’m missing something, but this doesn’t exactly sound like good news. This is only one part of HondaJet’s proposed expansion, while plans for component manufacturing and a distribution center “have been pushed back.”
Still, Bev Perdue and Kay Hagan don’t show up for bad news, so this must be good news.
*Something to think about if for tomorrow’s primary: the Greensboro City Council unanimously approved incentives for HondaJet.
