Beijing's Daxing Airport Gets New Bizjet MRO Center

ExecuJet Haite has opened a new maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) operation at Beijing’s Daxing International Airport. The 7,150-sq-m (77,000-sq-ft) facility was officially inaugurated on Tuesday at the airport, where Capital Airport Holding Business Aviation Management (CBM) now operates a purpose-built FBO.

As part of a dedicated 400,000-sq-m business aviation complex at Daxing, the new facilities are intended to provide aircraft operators with an alternative gateway to Beijing’s main gateway Capital Airport, where CBM already provides a full handling service. The new ExecuJet Haite base expands the scope of the MRO service it has provided since 2010 at China’s Tianjin Binhai International Airport, where it has a 2,700-sq-m facility. There are currently no business aviation MRO options at Capital Airport.

According to Paul Desgrosseilliers, general manager of ExecuJet Haite General Aviation Services, China’s business aviation industry is now showing signs of recovery after its Covid-driven downturn. After several years when the domestic fleet shrunk, he told AIN that some new Western-made aircraft are starting to be delivered and international operators are now finding it easier to fly into and within the country.

ExecuJet Haite, a Chinese company that until 2016 was part of a joint venture with Europe-based business aviation group ExecuJet, intends to support 16 different aircraft. Initially, these types will include Embraer’s Phenom, Legacy, and Lineage jets; Gulfstream’s GIV, V, and 600 models; Bombardier Learjet, Challenger, and Global aircraft; and all current production Falcon models, including the new 6X.

The company expects the new MRO facility at Daxing to receive its approval from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) in September, with the FAA, which has already inspected the new Daxing facility, set to issue reciprocal Part 145 certification soon after. In October, the European agency EASA is due to inspect the operation, which includes a 5,000-sq-m air-conditioned and heated hangar plus additional offices and workshops.

“We see this [the Beijing area] as a key market for us, and Daxing makes sense due to its proximity to Tianjin, which is only a 90-minute drive away,” Desgrosseilliers explained. ExecuJet Haite intends to pool some of its skilled staff and specialized tooling between the two facilities, viewing the Daxing facility as a long-term investment.

At the Tianjin facility, ExecuJet Haite has increasingly been conducting interior and exterior refurbishment work on jets, taking advantage of the presence of an established airliner painting facility at the site. Upgrade projects have included multiple ADS-B surveillance system installations and a Ka-band communications package. Tianjin Airport has the advantage of being an approved financial point of entry and exit for aircraft moving in and out of China, which simplifies bureaucratic and tax requirements.

An Alternative Bizav Gateway to Beijing

While Daxing is further from the center of Beijing than Capital Airport—around 34 miles compared with 21 miles—door-to-door travel times could be comparable. It is likely to be quicker for passengers and crew to pass through the less crowded airport, and the highway running from the south side of the city into downtown is significantly less congested than the road from Capital Airport on the northwest side.

Daxing Airport opened in 2019 to provide capacity relief for Capital Airport, which is still the main hub for airline traffic and has little or no space for expansion. In addition to Tianjin to the south, it also serves the city of Hebei.

Desgrosseilliers predicted that a combination of much more available space and lower handling costs would likely induce business aircraft operators to migrate to Daxing. He said the airport is set to emerge as a significant market for transient traffic, including some aircraft from Southeast Asia, and that based operators may also start positioning there.

CBM was established in 2019 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Beijing’s Capital Airport Holdings group, which is owned by the CAAC. It is tasked with responsibility for FBOs at both airports. The Capital Aviation FBO had been built more than a decade earlier to open in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

"The opening of the international channel of the Daxing business jet terminal provides a convenient and efficient new channel for international business passengers to enter and exit Daxing Airport," said Li Yiyong, general manager of CBM. "It's of great significance for improving access to Daxing Airport, and promoting business cooperation as well as economic and trade development in Beijing, Hebei, and Tianjin."

According to Desgrosseilliers, the new business aviation enclave at Daxing has ramp space for at least 85 business jets and 40 more with five hangars available for covered parking. The facility operates as a 24/7 port of entry and exit, with domestic flights operating there since April 2023 and international operations permitted from August 27.

The 11,000-sq-m business aviation terminal built by CBM includes 12 VIP lounges. The vast site at the airport offers plenty of space for the expansion of traffic and for new facilities to be added. Li confirmed that some international traffic is likely to relocate from Capital Airport to Daxing.

Unlike MRO companies in many other parts of the world, ExecuJet Haite appears to have avoided the shortage of skilled labor. Desgrosseilliers explained that many of his technicians have been with the company for more than a decade, and he has found a ready supply of young trainee mechanics from local technical schools. The company takes on interns in their early 20s and has a good choice from which to hire for full-time positions.

China Gets More User-Friendly

According to Desgrosseilliers, an American who has worked in China’s business aviation sector since 2010, the country has become a far more user-friendly environment for companies and aircraft operators. “Being able to open a new MRO in just nine months, as we have done, would have been impossible 15 years ago,” he said, adding that the safety audit process for operations is very rigorous.

In his experience, it has also become a lot easier to import aircraft parts into China on a tax-free basis, with the process now taking just three or four hours, compared with a week or more some years ago. He also reported that the process for securing flight approvals for business aircraft movements, which used to be a significant disincentive for international operators to visit the country, has become far more straightforward.

Li explained that in 2023, the CAAC abolished a restriction that meant foreign aircraft could fly no more than six sectors during a single trip to China. He said that CBM actively helps foreign operators expedite the agency’s requirements for operating in the country.

CBM’s Capital Airport FBO achieved the first stage of IBAC’s International Standards for Business Aircraft Handling (IS-BAH) in May 2019, and subsequently completed the second stage of the audit process in January 2022. It aims to achieve the third stage of IS-BAH in February 2025, which would make it the first FBO in China to achieve this standard.

The travel restrictions imposed during the Covid pandemic seriously undermined the case for wealthy Chinese individuals and companies to own long-range aircraft. This prompted the sale of numerous jets, peaking in 2022. Since then, China’s economy—and especially its once dynamic real estate sector—has been well below par, which Desgrosseilliers suggested may have prompted government agencies to be more flexible to attract inward investment.

According to CBM, in the first six months of 2024, there were around 3,000 business aircraft movements at Capital Airport. Unless the second half of the year sees a significant uptick, this would appear to indicate that year-end traffic totals are unlikely to exceed the 6,600 movements recorded in 2023. Between 2013 and 2019, there were around 9,000 movements each year, with traffic having declined by around one-third in the post-Covid years.

Desgrosseilliers told AIN that the situation has now stabilized to the extent that business aviation in China may see some single-digit growth in 2025. As vice chair of the Asian Business Aviation Association, he observed growth in activity in several parts of Southeast Asia, most notably in countries such as Singapore and Malaysia.