Asia’s growth cut in half

Asian Sky Group’s annual fleet report has quickly become one of the highlights of the ABACE show.

Now in its sixth year, the report breaks down the fleet of Asian business jets at the end of the previous year, and gives figures on the amount of new deliveries, pre-owned aircraft entering the region, as well as those aircraft leaving.

In 2016 the total fleet grew by 3%. This is half the amount it grew by in the previous year.

As of the end of December, the total fleet stood at 1115 aircraft, up by 112 aircraft across the year. 78 aircraft left Asia in 2016, which is just a touch higher than the 74 in 2015.

In percentage terms some of the largest gains were recorded in countries where the fleet size was fairly small to begin with. South Korea’s fleet grew by 16% by adding three aircraft, whilst Papua New Guinea’s fleet grew by a massive 33%, just by adding one.

As ever though, all eyes will have been on China, where the pace of growth has dropped from double digits in recent years down to a more realistic figure.

Last year continued that trend, with the 4% exactly matching the previous years’ figure. Of those aircraft, the 34 new deliveries were wiped out by 34 aircraft leaving the fleet.

The 19 pre-owned aircraft arriving in China can be seen as an increasing sign that the country’s business jet fleet is maturing.

NOTE: The above originally appeared as the editorial in our Corporate Jet Investor One Minute Week newsletter. To find out more, and sign up for free, please click here.