CJIQ 225 focuses on business jet operators in Asia
The latest edition of Corporate Jet Investor Quarterly focuses on business jet operators in Asia, goes motor racing with Jetcraft’s CEO and compares Gulfstream’s new G800 with its older sister, the G650. It also analyses the results of our latest connectivity survey, in partnership with Viasat, and probes what lessons business aviation can learn from the automotive sector.
As business aviation booms in Asia, we profile five leading operators in the region – ACAM Group, Jet Aviation, Metrojet, Phenix Jet Cayman and TAG Aviation. Senior executives from each organisation explain how they plan to grow their businesses. Hong Kong and Singapore remain key hubs, but attention is turning towards Japan, Taiwan and India. We conclude by examining how business aviation will look in the region by 2030.
From business planning to business management, as we strap into the passenger seat of a GT4 racing car with Jahid Fazal-Karim, owner and chairman of aircraft broker Jetcraft behind the wheel. Fazal-Karim explains why he swapped his French-built, CAP 10 aerobatic plane to pursue his passion for motor racing and what it teaches him about business management.
“Ultimately, it’s the competitiveness, which is so important in businesses like mine,” Fazal-Karim told us. “In racing, you need to anticipate what’s ahead, understand the competition and adapt quickly to stay ahead. It helped sharpen my focus and improve my ability to plan for a complex marketplace like business aviation.”
We stay with competition but these time between completing models of Gulfstream’s business jets. As the manufacturer prepares to begin deliveries of the G800 this summer, we ask two US aircraft brokers how the new aircraft will shape the G650 market?
Brad Harris, founder and CEO of Dallas Jet International does not believe the G800 will affect the resale value of the G650 or G650 for the time being. “There has been a shift to the G800, but the G650 is still a strong market and people will buy them due to the price differential,” he told us.
Our latest connectivity research, conducted in partnership with Viasat, reveals that Cloud-based applications are becoming more important for business jet travellers. But lack of coverage remains a problem. Claudio D’Amico, Viasat’s vice president of Business Aviation Strategic Market Engagement helps us probe the significance of the results. “This is the first time we have surveyed business jet travellers instead of business aviation professionals,” he said. “That means we have the unique viewpoint of passengers rather than the industry.”
Connectivity of a different kind was on the mind was on the mind of Holger Krahmer, secretary general of the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) when he spoke to CJI ahead of the EBACE event in Geneva. He believes business aviation has an unprecedented opportunity to influence a new generation of politicians and policy makers, on both sides of the Atlantic, about the contribution the sector makes to economic growth and vibrant societies.
“We need to be present in their minds,” he told CJI. “We need to explain to these new political people why we are here, what is the added value, so designing the business model.”
In this issue too, our intrepid reporter Yves Le Marquand, straps into a Pipistrel Velis Electro to test fly the future of electric training aviation – with the steady hands of Adam Twidell, head, Future of Flight, Flexjet at the controls.
“What the Pipistrel lacks in flight endurance, it certainly makes up for with its ease of operation,” Twidell explained. “We have learnt that when teaching a new student to fly, being able to remove the complexities of a combustion engine has been hugely beneficial to their learning curve.”
The latest edition of CJIQ also gives guidance on how to choose an aircraft registry, appraises the career of leading business jet appraiser Bob Zuskin, who recently retired, and reports from our CJI London 2025 conference.
Read the digital version of CJIQ 225 here or sign up for your free print copy here.
Meanwhile, if you would like to see a topic covered in the next edition of CJIQ, to be published at NBAA’s NBACE event in October, please let us know.
CJIQ225: The highlights
Will Gulfstream’s new G800 cool G650 values?
Connectivity survey: working on clouds in clouds
Driving ahead business aviation
Electric training: simplicity is everything
