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When Tan Jifang flies, he always chooses first class. Not yet a billionaire himself, he certainly hopes to meet one sitting next to him, to whom he can sell a Cessna business jet.
“I am in charge of selling Cessna business jets in China’s southwest and wealthy people from this area really try to keep a low profile,” Tan told West China Cosmopolitan Daily, published in Chengdu, southwest China’s Sichuan Province. To find potential customers, Tan has been following the release of every rich list and learning the richest people’s looks by heart.
Li He is a senior salesman for Avion Pacific Ltd., a company in Shenzhen, south China’s Guangdong Province, that sells helicopters and business jets manufactured by Hawker Beechcraft, McDonnell Douglas and Sikorsky on the Chinese mainland. He has tried his best to learn every detail about the lifestyle of China’s super rich, especially the top 10 richest people in every province, whom he regarded as potential customers.
“Last year, our company sold 13 business jets on the Chinese mainland while this year’s order book looks even more promising. We sealed two orders, both for three jets, at this year’s Asian Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition in Shanghai in March alone, which cost around 35 million yuan ($5.51 million) each,” Li said.
As mature markets for private jets in Europe and North America remain lackluster due to the financial crisis, leading international makers of private jets are pinning their hopes for sales growth on a booming and embryonic Chinese market.
Robust growth
China’s private jet market has enormous potential for long-term growth. Beijingpublished newspaper International Herald Leader reported that only eight private aircraft were sold on the Chinese mainland in 2008 while the figure rose to 15 in 2009. Although the total number of registered private aircraft had spiked to 137 by the end of April, it was less than 1 percent of that of the United States.
Meanwhile, according to a survey conducted by the Hurun Research Institute and GroupM Knowledge, at the end of 2011 China had 63,500 people with a net worth of more than 100 million yuan ($15.74 million) and 13 percent of them had plans to purchase business jets.
The Wall Street Journal reported on May 27 that half of new orders for France-based Dassault Aviation SA’s Falcon jets since the beginning of this year came from China.
Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. is a leading business jet supplier on the Chinese mainland. The company, based in Georgia, the United States, opened a business jet service center in Beijing earlier this year to provide repair, maintenance and overhaul services for its customers on the Chinese mainland. It is the first foreign manufacturer to do so.
An anonymous salesperson of business jets told West China Cosmopolitan Daily that as interior amenities designs are tailored to customers, many Chinese buyers require to have onboard mahjong tables or karaoke machines.
Bombardier, a Canadian manufacturer of commercial aircraft and business jets, told Beijing Review that the company has sold more than 75 business jets osn the Chinese mainland. “Our customers are mostly companies, high net worth individuals and charter operators. Traditionally, buyers in China have favored large aircraft, such as our Global aircraft range, for the range capabilities and large cabins, but buyers are increasingly interested in our Challenger and smaller Learjet aircraft as well,” said spokeswoman Annie Cossette. Bombardier forecast in June that there would be 2,420 deliveries for China from 2012 to 2031 for all business jet manufacturers.
The already strong market demand for private aircraft has been further boosted by the rising popularity of private pilot training programs. Xinhua News Agency reported that only 20,000 people in China hold pilot licenses, less than 4 percent of those in the United States.
In July, 13 students graduated from the first private pilot license program in Xinjin Flight College under Civil Aviation Flight University of China, China’s only full-time regular institution of higher education for civil pilots. These selffunded students include four people who have owned a jet and others who plan to buy.
The 200,000-yuan ($31,483), 50-hour class already attracted a fresh intake of 20 students, Liao Lunjin, a researcher and engineer at the college, told Global Times at the end of July. His college has six helicopters now and plans to rent five more in the first half of 2013 to meet rapidly growing demand.
In 2006, Deng Bin, a licensed pilot and a successful businessman from southwest China’s Yunnan Province, purchased 60 single-engine Cessna 172 Skyhawks for more than 100 million yuan ($15.74 million) and loaned them to Guanghan Flight College of the Civil Aviation Flight University of China. Deng is building two business jet service centers in Kunming in Yunnan and Guanghan in Sichuan Province, which will provide a full range of services, such as maintenance, hangar storage and flight application, for nouveau rich top guns.
“There is a goldmine in pilot training and business jet service provision. General aviation is nothing but a sunrise sector in China,”Deng said.
Obstacles on the runway
“My jet always flies illegally at the risk of a heavy fine,” an anonymous owner of a luxury hotel in Shenzhen told Guangzhou Daily. The convenience of having one’s own jet has yet to materialize in the Chinese mainland due to strict aerospace control. According to current laws and regulations, before every flight of a private jet, an application must be filed to local civil aviation authorities at least one week in advance. Even for emergency flights, application time must be at least three days before the flight. After civil aviation administrators ratify the application, it has to be submitted to the Air Force.
“The application, even going through a smooth process, will cost me about 10 days. I often impulsively decide to fly to a business meeting in the morning and to a beach resort for leisure in the afternoon. It is unrealistic for me to apply for each flight,” said the anonymous entrepreneur, whose son is a licensed pilot.
Besides regulatory barriers, the lack of infrastructure has also greatly dampened the enthusiasm of wealthy people in purchasing their own aircraft. China had merely 286 airports and temporary landing strips available by 2011, far fewer than the 15,000 in the United States, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
In the Chinese mainland, regulations demand that all private aircraft should be kept and maintained at hangars of certified companies while the cost started at nearly 1 million yuan ($157,426) annually for smaller aircraft models.
However, the strict control of aerospace by military and civil aviation regulators, which has for decades stifled the general aviation market of China, is easing. The process started in November 2010 when China announced a reform over the administration of the country’s low-altitude airspace, defined as below 1,000 meters.
China’s low-altitude airspace has been controlled by the Air Force and the CAAC.
Starting from January this year, airspace below 1,000 meters in northeast, central and south China, as well as six pilot cities, opened to general aviation on a trial basis. The six pilot cities are Tangshan in northern Hebei Province, Xi’an in northwestern Shaanxi Province, Qingdao in eastern Shandong Province, Hangzhou and Ningbo in eastern Zhejiang Province and Kunming.
General aviation refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline passenger and cargo flights, including private flying activities, flight training, air ambulance, police aviation, aerial firefighting, air charter, bush flying, gliding and skydiving. China’s general aviation hours flown totaled 502,700 in 2011, an increase of 28.5 percent year on year.
The area of low-altitude airspace in regions and cities open to general aviation flights accounted for 31.6 percent of that for China’s total land territory.
Li Jiaxiang, Director of CAAC, said in March that China will fully open its lowaltitude airspace to general aviation in 2015 and the country is also going to build 72 new airports, for regional aircraft and private jets, mainly in the country’s west, by 2015.
China aims at a 19-percent annual growth in general aviation air traffic from 502,700 flying hours in 2011 to 2 million by 2020, according to a development program for the civil aviation sector released by the State Council, China’s cabinet, on July 12.
China will further relax the ban on lowaltitude airspace for private use and would also increase the number of cities and facilities available for general aviation, said Huang Min, Director General of the Department of Basic Industries of the National Development and Reform Commission, at a press conference on July 20. The commission is in charge of coordinating government departments to achieve airspace reform.
“I am in charge of selling Cessna business jets in China’s southwest and wealthy people from this area really try to keep a low profile,” Tan told West China Cosmopolitan Daily, published in Chengdu, southwest China’s Sichuan Province. To find potential customers, Tan has been following the release of every rich list and learning the richest people’s looks by heart.
Li He is a senior salesman for Avion Pacific Ltd., a company in Shenzhen, south China’s Guangdong Province, that sells helicopters and business jets manufactured by Hawker Beechcraft, McDonnell Douglas and Sikorsky on the Chinese mainland. He has tried his best to learn every detail about the lifestyle of China’s super rich, especially the top 10 richest people in every province, whom he regarded as potential customers.
“Last year, our company sold 13 business jets on the Chinese mainland while this year’s order book looks even more promising. We sealed two orders, both for three jets, at this year’s Asian Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition in Shanghai in March alone, which cost around 35 million yuan ($5.51 million) each,” Li said.
As mature markets for private jets in Europe and North America remain lackluster due to the financial crisis, leading international makers of private jets are pinning their hopes for sales growth on a booming and embryonic Chinese market.
Robust growth
China’s private jet market has enormous potential for long-term growth. Beijingpublished newspaper International Herald Leader reported that only eight private aircraft were sold on the Chinese mainland in 2008 while the figure rose to 15 in 2009. Although the total number of registered private aircraft had spiked to 137 by the end of April, it was less than 1 percent of that of the United States.
Meanwhile, according to a survey conducted by the Hurun Research Institute and GroupM Knowledge, at the end of 2011 China had 63,500 people with a net worth of more than 100 million yuan ($15.74 million) and 13 percent of them had plans to purchase business jets.
The Wall Street Journal reported on May 27 that half of new orders for France-based Dassault Aviation SA’s Falcon jets since the beginning of this year came from China.
Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. is a leading business jet supplier on the Chinese mainland. The company, based in Georgia, the United States, opened a business jet service center in Beijing earlier this year to provide repair, maintenance and overhaul services for its customers on the Chinese mainland. It is the first foreign manufacturer to do so.
An anonymous salesperson of business jets told West China Cosmopolitan Daily that as interior amenities designs are tailored to customers, many Chinese buyers require to have onboard mahjong tables or karaoke machines.
Bombardier, a Canadian manufacturer of commercial aircraft and business jets, told Beijing Review that the company has sold more than 75 business jets osn the Chinese mainland. “Our customers are mostly companies, high net worth individuals and charter operators. Traditionally, buyers in China have favored large aircraft, such as our Global aircraft range, for the range capabilities and large cabins, but buyers are increasingly interested in our Challenger and smaller Learjet aircraft as well,” said spokeswoman Annie Cossette. Bombardier forecast in June that there would be 2,420 deliveries for China from 2012 to 2031 for all business jet manufacturers.
The already strong market demand for private aircraft has been further boosted by the rising popularity of private pilot training programs. Xinhua News Agency reported that only 20,000 people in China hold pilot licenses, less than 4 percent of those in the United States.
In July, 13 students graduated from the first private pilot license program in Xinjin Flight College under Civil Aviation Flight University of China, China’s only full-time regular institution of higher education for civil pilots. These selffunded students include four people who have owned a jet and others who plan to buy.
The 200,000-yuan ($31,483), 50-hour class already attracted a fresh intake of 20 students, Liao Lunjin, a researcher and engineer at the college, told Global Times at the end of July. His college has six helicopters now and plans to rent five more in the first half of 2013 to meet rapidly growing demand.
In 2006, Deng Bin, a licensed pilot and a successful businessman from southwest China’s Yunnan Province, purchased 60 single-engine Cessna 172 Skyhawks for more than 100 million yuan ($15.74 million) and loaned them to Guanghan Flight College of the Civil Aviation Flight University of China. Deng is building two business jet service centers in Kunming in Yunnan and Guanghan in Sichuan Province, which will provide a full range of services, such as maintenance, hangar storage and flight application, for nouveau rich top guns.
“There is a goldmine in pilot training and business jet service provision. General aviation is nothing but a sunrise sector in China,”Deng said.
Obstacles on the runway
“My jet always flies illegally at the risk of a heavy fine,” an anonymous owner of a luxury hotel in Shenzhen told Guangzhou Daily. The convenience of having one’s own jet has yet to materialize in the Chinese mainland due to strict aerospace control. According to current laws and regulations, before every flight of a private jet, an application must be filed to local civil aviation authorities at least one week in advance. Even for emergency flights, application time must be at least three days before the flight. After civil aviation administrators ratify the application, it has to be submitted to the Air Force.
“The application, even going through a smooth process, will cost me about 10 days. I often impulsively decide to fly to a business meeting in the morning and to a beach resort for leisure in the afternoon. It is unrealistic for me to apply for each flight,” said the anonymous entrepreneur, whose son is a licensed pilot.
Besides regulatory barriers, the lack of infrastructure has also greatly dampened the enthusiasm of wealthy people in purchasing their own aircraft. China had merely 286 airports and temporary landing strips available by 2011, far fewer than the 15,000 in the United States, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
In the Chinese mainland, regulations demand that all private aircraft should be kept and maintained at hangars of certified companies while the cost started at nearly 1 million yuan ($157,426) annually for smaller aircraft models.
However, the strict control of aerospace by military and civil aviation regulators, which has for decades stifled the general aviation market of China, is easing. The process started in November 2010 when China announced a reform over the administration of the country’s low-altitude airspace, defined as below 1,000 meters.
China’s low-altitude airspace has been controlled by the Air Force and the CAAC.
Starting from January this year, airspace below 1,000 meters in northeast, central and south China, as well as six pilot cities, opened to general aviation on a trial basis. The six pilot cities are Tangshan in northern Hebei Province, Xi’an in northwestern Shaanxi Province, Qingdao in eastern Shandong Province, Hangzhou and Ningbo in eastern Zhejiang Province and Kunming.
General aviation refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline passenger and cargo flights, including private flying activities, flight training, air ambulance, police aviation, aerial firefighting, air charter, bush flying, gliding and skydiving. China’s general aviation hours flown totaled 502,700 in 2011, an increase of 28.5 percent year on year.
The area of low-altitude airspace in regions and cities open to general aviation flights accounted for 31.6 percent of that for China’s total land territory.
Li Jiaxiang, Director of CAAC, said in March that China will fully open its lowaltitude airspace to general aviation in 2015 and the country is also going to build 72 new airports, for regional aircraft and private jets, mainly in the country’s west, by 2015.
China aims at a 19-percent annual growth in general aviation air traffic from 502,700 flying hours in 2011 to 2 million by 2020, according to a development program for the civil aviation sector released by the State Council, China’s cabinet, on July 12.
China will further relax the ban on lowaltitude airspace for private use and would also increase the number of cities and facilities available for general aviation, said Huang Min, Director General of the Department of Basic Industries of the National Development and Reform Commission, at a press conference on July 20. The commission is in charge of coordinating government departments to achieve airspace reform.