Duluth’s aviation heavyweight is still running the table. Cirrus Aircraft once again topped U.S. general aviation sales in 2025, delivering 797 planes and recording roughly $1.18 billion in airplane billings. It is the company’s fourth straight year as the nation’s volume leader, a streak that keeps Duluth squarely on the map as a small-plane manufacturing hub with a lot of high-skilled local jobs riding on its success.
According to GAMA's 2025 year-end shipment report, U.S. manufacturers delivered 3,230 airplanes in 2025, and Cirrus led by unit count with 797 shipments, up about 9% from the year before. The association’s tables show Cirrus recorded approximately $1.18 billion in airplane billings for 2025, putting the Duluth firm in the relatively small club of U.S. manufacturers that top a billion dollars in annual billings.
Local coverage in the Minnesota Star Tribune leaned into the hometown angle, noting Cirrus is one of Duluth’s biggest employers, with roughly 1,500 people on the payroll, and that the company’s Hong Kong listing last summer helped lift its share price. The Star Tribune also highlighted how far the company has climbed since 2021, when Cirrus delivered 528 aircraft and posted about $632.9 million in billings.
Model mix and production drivers
GAMA’s manufacturer tables sketch out where the 2025 growth came from. The SR22T accounted for a large share of piston deliveries, with 384 units, while the Vision SF50 logged 106 jet deliveries in 2025. Those results helped jets make up roughly 13% of Cirrus’s shipments last year, according to GAMA’s data.
Ownership and the Hong Kong listing
Cirrus completed a Hong Kong listing on July 12, 2024, raising about HK$1.5 billion, roughly US$193 million, in an offering that represented about 15% of its share capital, according to advisors Slaughter & May. The company remains majority-owned by China Aviation Industry General Aircraft (CAIGA), a unit of state-owned AVIC, which acquired Cirrus in 2011, according to AVweb.
What it means for Duluth and the market
Cirrus’s expansion has shown up in bricks and mortar around town. The company has consolidated engineering and product development into a large Innovation Center near Duluth International Airport, a move the manufacturer has framed as central to its future growth. Cirrus Aircraft announced the project and its local benefits.
At the same time, wider industry coverage notes airplane billings climbed to roughly $31 billion in 2025, driven by gains in piston aircraft and business jets. That backdrop helps explain why Cirrus’s mix of SR series pistons and the Vision Jet produced such strong results last year, according to reporting in Aviation Week.
Looking ahead
Investors, Duluth leaders and Cirrus customers will be watching production rates, backlog numbers and the Vision Jet pipeline to see whether the company can keep pace with demand. For Duluth, another year of strong deliveries would translate into steadier payrolls and continued prominence as one of the few U.S. cities where aircraft are built at scale.
