Business AviAtion China
22 ISSUE 4 • 2018 http://www.sps-aviation.com
Less is More
However, contrary to their ostentatious business jet choices in
the past, the new age Chinese buyer is more practical. In 2016,
Embraer made some rather staid deliveries in the form of one
midsize Legacy 500 and two light Phenom 300s in the Chinese
market. This just shows that the trends are shifting towards more
mature purchases in the country. The aforementioned ASG report
also implied that there is a gradual shift towards procuring pre-
owned jets. It claimed that approximately half of the jets pur-
chased in China in 2016 were second hand. Feldzer has a simple
reason behind the sudden austerity. He says, “Let me ask you, how
many hours on an average do the owners of private jets fly? The
answer is something that we have experienced in the ultra long
range Falcon 7X. It is capable of flying 14 hours, but on an aver-
age, it flies only for 2.5 hours, not more. This means that most of
the time, the aircraft is doing short distances. Chinese buyers have
changed their minds and so has the global market. It’s about ratio-
nal purchases now...like why buy an 8X
if you don’t need the maximum range?”
The Desi ConneCT
“The surge will take India from 18th
globally (in terms of private jet numbers)
to fourth. Intriguingly, the country boasts
almost double (111) the number of pri-
vate jets than China, even though China
has many more billionaires,” wrote jour-
nalist William Stolerman in a 2010 edi-
tion of Luxury Insider, a leading online
luxury magazine. And, while many may
scoff at the thought of this, a few indus-
try veterans consider it a likely scenario.
The CEO of Club One Air, Rajan Mehra
recently spoke about the same to Sunday
Guardian Live. He said, “Just about eight
to ten years ago, India had more private planes than China and
then in the last ten years, China suddenly exploded with economic
growth, with people having plenty to money to buy jets. During
this time, a lot of people in China bought private jets. But in the last
two years, the Chinese government has clamped down, making it
difficult for businessmen to buy private jets. In that respect, if we
can get our act right, we can even get ahead of them.”
However, the facts may just give you some food for thought.
South China Morning Post reports that Mainland China had 466
business jets flying its skies at the end of 2016, with 114 individual
business people owned 164 private jets, a number that is less than
India’s business aviation fleet of 487 in 2015 reported by BAOA.
Hurun Business Jet Owners 2017 report says ‘based on its
financial progress and economic size, there is enough demand
for 1,900 business jets to be operational in the country.’
In China’s Five-year Plan for 2016-2020, at least 50 new
civilian airports are now being built to facilitate business and lei-
sure travels. Meanwhile India also har-
bours similar plans with new heliports
and airports coming up for the UDAN
scheme. Club One Air’s Rajan Mehra
thinks that this may be the boost Indian
business aviationis looking for. He told
us, “Some of the smaller towns don’t
even have airfields, but the good news
is that this government is looking at
these concerns very positively. They are
doing it for regional connectivity, but it
will help us too because we will also get
to use the airstrips and infrastructure.”
It is also important to note that the
same Shanghai-based Hurun Report’s bil-
lionaire list places India on the third spot
with China leading the list by producing
four new billionaires every week. SPNowadays,
companies prefer to
pay for expensive
travel rather than
have their very
important people
stuck in lounges
in the middle of
nowhere waiting for
a connecting flightairCraft on disPlay at shanghai hongqiao intErnational airPort, shanghai