Financial Solutions for Business Aircraft conference

Emerging markets such as China, India
and Brazil are fast catching
up on the United States
when it comes to ownership of private jets, a two day international aviation
conference has heard.

According to managing director
of private aircraft brokerage and advisory firm Colibri Aircraft Oliver Stone,
latest statistics show that the United States dominates the market overall,
accounting for 19,000 of the near 25,000 turbine private aircraft currently in
operation across the globe. Some 4,000 are registered to owners in the EU and
1,900 to the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India
and China)
countries.

Of the 25,000 turbine private
aircraft, 76 are registered to or owned by Irish people and companies.

Stone revealed at the
Financial Solutions for Business Aircraft (FiSBA) conference held by Shannon Airport
and supported by regional development agency Shannon Development that the United States’
dominance of the market in terms of new deliveries of private jets slipped from
72% to 42% between 2006 and 2010. There has been a 14% decline (885 to 763) in
the number of new private jet purchases across the globe over the past five years,
he stated.

Stone said that in 2006,
some 637 of the 885 aircraft purchased were delivered to the United States
but that figure dropped last year to 321. In the meantime, the influence on the
industry from the emerging markets has grown dramatically, with Asia taking deliveries of 14.3% of all new private jets
last year, up from 3% in 2006.

The European market also
showed significant gains, from a 15% share in 2006 to almost 23% last year. The
Latin American market has also increased its share, from just 6% in 2006 to
14.3% last year.

Stone speaking at the
conference said that all the indications are that growth in numbers of private
jets in China
will spike over the coming years.  “We have definitely seen a significant
shift in terms of market dominance. The US
has been the dominant force for 50 years but it is anticipated that demand in China
will grow by 50% annually and there will be around 500 business jets there by
2014.”

“This change means that the
private jet sector is definitely globalizing. It is a huge change and
opportunity for the industry globally and the challenge is to streamline
legislation so that the emerging nations can have more freedom of flight than
they have at present.”