Honda Aircraft Invests In Tar Heel State

At a recent groundbreaking ceremony,  Honda Aircraft president and CEO Michimasa Fujino and local and state government officials celebrated the imminent construction of an 83,000-square-foot facility at the company’s Greensboro, North Carolina headquarters. The facility, set to open next July, will house a service parts warehouse and wing manufacturing operation for the HondaJet.

During the groundbreaking ceremony, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper welcomed Honda Aircraft’s $15.5 million investment in the facility and the company’s $245 million capital investment in North Carolina. The state now ranks as the second-largest aerospace cluster in the U.S., with 200 aerospace companies and 400 suppliers. “We're making the push for first,” he said. 

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With the added wing manufacturing capability and new automated manufacturing technology, Honda Aircraft will have extra space for other projects. Cooper hinted that some work is under way on possible new models, although Honda Aircraft hasn’t confirmed this. “We look forward to Honda [Aircraft’s] next breakthrough,” he said. “They’re going to have some extra space, and they’re being a little mysterious about what they’re going to do with it. We know, too, that they're going to need a skilled workforce for their R & D, for their advanced manufacturing.”

Honda Aircraft employs 1,500 workers in North Carolina, and as the company ramps up the HondaJet assembly line from four to five aircraft per month, Fujino hopes to add more employees.

“The [new] facility will be utilized for lean production and increased production efficiency with a highly automated process,” he said. “The addition of this facility will directly translate to quicker lead times between purchase and the delivery, eventually allowing us to increase output for our customers.” 

The more than 130 HondaJets now in service worldwide have achieved a dispatch reliability of 99.7 percent, Fujino said. “This number exceeds industry norms. Developing an aircraft that is reliable is one of our five highest priorities. And this number is a testament to our commitment to quality and our dedication to provide the best service experience to all of our customers.”