Honda Aircraft Company Soars Under New Leadership

Upon Fujino’s retirement, Hideto Yamasaki plans to take the HondaJet into the future with a sharp customer focus.

Tuesday, July 26, 2022 at 09:18 AM ET

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Hideto Yamasaki comes into the leadership role at Honda Aircraft Company from a long career in Honda sales and customer service. [Photo: Stephen Yeates]

Key Takeaways:

Hideto Yamasaki, Honda Aircraft's new CEO from an automotive sales background, emphasizes customer relationships and acknowledges the long development and profit cycles inherent to the aviation industry.
Honda Aircraft is expanding its global customer service network to 21 locations to enhance customer satisfaction, amidst a strong pre-owned market and growing fleet maturity.
The company faces a nearly two-year production backlog due to high demand and pandemic-related supply chain challenges, making production adjustments more complex than in the automotive sector.
Development of the HondaJet 2600 concept is ongoing, with an announcement expected by year-end, aiming to expand Honda Aircraft into the business jet market while upholding brand values of safety, efficiency, and sustainability.

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When the Honda Aircraft Company debuted its prototype HondaJet at EAA AirVenture in 2005, the project had been in the works for roughly 20 years. That’s the kind of long game that Honda Motor Company played as it considered its entry into the general aviation market. And it’s a concept that is inherent to the DNA of the company, made evident again in FLYING’s first talk with new Honda Aircraft CEO Hideto Yamasaki at Oshkosh 2022.

Yamasaki took on the role upon the planned retirement of Michimasa Fujino, the mastermind of the HA420 and its evolution up to this year. Yamasaki has spent nearly all of his career in Honda’s automotive sectors, in increasing leadership roles in Japan, the U.S., Turkey, and Ukraine.