At Aero 2026 in Friedrichshafen this week, Textron Aviation announced with customer Luxaviation a fleet order that will add five Cessna Citation Latitudes to the operator’s well-exercised stable of Citation CJ series jets. It formed one of many songs in the chorus of business aviation themes that have only grown in volume over the post-pandemic years at what has become the largest general aviation trade show in Europe.
For Textron Aviation, the Luxaviation agreement adds to the nine Citation Latitudes ordered by Luminair, based in Hamburg, Germany, which was also made public at the show.
Luxaviation purchased Abelag in 2013, and Ward Bonduel has worked with the company since 2015. In 2021 he became the CEO, overseeing a private aviation portfolio that began with Abelag founder Ganshof van der Meersch, who brought the first business jet onto the Belgian aircraft registry in 1972. Van der Meersch also co-founded the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) in 1977.
In an interview with AvBrief, Bonduel praised the performance of the CJs in the 20-aircraft-strong Luxaviation fleet, including four CJ4s and two CJ1s, along with several turboprops. “It started with one jet,” said Bonduel. “The word spread, and we got into several CJs, and soon we had three CJ2s … we were using those CJs to operate for ‘shared’ owners, for the co-owners, but also to have them available for charter.” By easing its customers into jet ownership piece by piece, Luxaviation found its niche in the Belgian market. “We went on to the CJ3, so then we had a large aircraft, and we operated those for around 10 years, and then we had to rethink our system and try to keep the shared owners motivated to follow us into the next step. And just at that time, Textron came up with the CJ4 Gen2.”
Now, Luxaviation plans to use the first Latitude to prove the longer range and larger cabin to its customers. But the appeal goes beyond extra room—the Latitudes bring a galley and a lavatory to the Luxaviation fleet.
