Although the total number of aircraft and hours flown still remains small, business aviation in China continues to grow at a blistering pace, according to Deer Jet, China’s largest provider of charter aviation services. In a podcast interview with AVweb on Monday at the National Business Aviation Association show in Orlando, Deer Jet’s Zhang Peng said the company flew 20 percent more hours in 2014 over a similar period during the previous year and he expects similar growth over the short term.
“We have had a 20 percent increase in flight time compared to last year. This is a big increase. Because the Chinese economy is still continuing in growth, Chinese business aviation growth will continue as in the past. But the growth rate will become flat,” Peng said.
Most of those flights are international trips in and out of China, which is what charter buyers and aircraft owners seem to demand, with only a small portion as domestic flights. With such strong demand, are fractionals on the U.S. model in China’s future?
Not for the short term, Peng said. “At the moment, fractional ownership is not a mature product in China. The reason is accounting and financial policy,” Peng said. Deer Jet started operations in 1995 and has 83 aircraft at its disposal, 24 of which it owns. The fleet includes aircraft from Gulfstream, Bombardier and Dassualt.
