Plane Purchasing Power

NetJets China Hawker 800XPs

The IMF says China will this year overtake the US as the world’s biggest economy (Britain did not make such a fuss 142 years ago). Much of the discussion has been about whether you can trust purchasing power parity (PPP) as a measure, although it is worth noting that the IMF estimates that China will have the highest GDP by 2020.

Like most economic facts it does not really make that much difference to the world and it is ironic that this PPP milestone has happened while the Chinese economy is slowing down. China is also not suddenly going to become the world’s largest business jet market and that is because purchasing power parity is not the same asplane purchasing powe r.

While a country’s economy is important, plane purchasing power is a mixture of: access (China has less than business aviation airports than Alabama); existing owners (the US has more than 12,000 jets, China has less than 300); pilots; maintenance and cultural attitudes.

China will become a major business aviation market, but at the moment nothing comes close to the plane purchasing power of the US.