Private aviation lender Global Jet Capital (GJC) sees the Asia-Pacific business aviation market heating up over the next 10 years. The U.S.-based company (Booth C219) predicts that over the next decade, the Asia-Pacific region could receive as many as 581 new midsize-to-heavy business jets worth approximately US $20.9 billion. Over that period, GJC estimates the value of new deliveries to the region will grow at 10.9 percent annually, the fastest in the world.
Between 2015 and 2018, there were approximately 364 new and used transactions involving mid and heavy private jets in Asia Pacific with a combined value estimated at nearly US $12 million, according to the company.
While China, the region’s largest market, has seen slight increases in new jet deliveries over the past two years after a dropoff in 2015 and 2016, GJC views it as still developing. “Albeit, the business aircraft market there is perhaps contracting somewhat at the moment, we see China as an enormous opportunity, and as such we’ve heavily invested in that market,” said David Labrozzi, GJC’s chief operating officer. “I think we’re seeing in some cases an acceleration of infrastructure and regulatory environment that will assist in the growth of the industry.”
The Asia Pacific business aircraft fleet currently has one of the world’s highest percentages of medium- to large-cabin jets, at 71 percent, and the Chinese market in particular has long swayed toward new aircraft acquisitions, but Labrozzi believes that is slowly changing. “There is now a significant appetite for, and acceptance of late model, high-pedigree, large-cabin, preowned aircraft,” Labrozzi told AIN. Indeed, the company expects to see more than 2,200 transactions in used midsize and larger jets across the region over the next 10 years, worth more than US $13 billion.
As a result, the company recently expanded its presence in the region with the opening of an expanded office in Hong Kong’s Admiralty District, headed up by Violet Kwek, sales director for Greater China and North Asia.
“The opening of this new office in this rapidly growing market is a pivotal step in our expansion strategy across Asia,” said Kwek. “As one of the world’s most globally connected cities, Hong Kong represents a major strategic location for business aviation in Asia Pacific, and our dedicated presence in Hong Kong will be vital to capitalize on the huge opportunities that this key market has to offer.”
Those opportunities include more than the purchases of aircraft, according to Labrozzi. “We are entertaining both new deliveries and resale, but we are also experiencing substantial opportunities with clients that are looking to refinance aircraft,” he said.