According to the Kerrville Daily Times, effective 11/12/2019, Mooney Aircraft International has ceased all production at it’s Kerrville Airport factory in Texas. The company laid off 229 employees, including all employees on the aircraft production and parts lines.
Mooney Aircraft Company was founded in 1929 by Albert Mooney and his brother Arthur, according to Wikipedia, and in over 89 years has produced over 11,000 Mooney Aircraft. The most popular model was the Mooney M20, a four-seat, single engine, retractable gear aircraft. The Mooney M20 has a fast cruise speed of 141 knots and a range of 1,000 nm, making it a very versatile single-engine aircraft, loved by pilots world-wide.
How does this closure affect Mooney Insurance Rates? According to the NTSB, there have been 712 fatal Mooney Incidents reported and 2,506 non-fatal incidents throughout the past 89 years. Airplane Insurance rates are based on many factors and some of those factors are specific to each aircrafts make and model, Mooney Aircraft are no exception.
Mooney Insurance rates without a doubt will be increasing now and for the next few years, primarily due to the following reasons:
- Parts availability. Aviation Insurance companies look at repair costs and parts availability when pricing Aircraft Insurance hull rates. Without continued production of Mooney parts, the parts available will become limited over time, thereby increasing repair costs.
- Accident and incident rates impact Airplane Insurance rates depending on the frequency, causes and the potential for further accidents with regards to specific aircraft make and models.
- The hardening of the Aviation Insurance Market. Due to many factors such as the Boeing 737 Max grounding, an 8 year soft market with record low Aircraft Insurance Premiums and an abundance of large aviation accidents over the past few years has caused the entire market to start hardening. This hardening began in 2018 and will continue for many years and will result in premium increases of 5%-50% across the board yearly, stricter underwriter guidelines and more pressure on brokers and underwriters to shop every insurance company to find the best rates and policy coverages.
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