Cleared for take-off

"Europe and the US have been our largest markets for a long time," says John Bingham, chief marketing officer of Piaggio Aero. "But China has the most opportunities to become the largest market in the future, because of the booming economy and people's increasing desire to embrace what is in fact a much better way to travel."

The European and North American markets have been in a lull because of the economic slump "for a ridiculous amount of time", Bingham says, "so we decided to open new markets to gain certifications to sell in 2009".

"We decided we could be more aggressive instead of sitting there and waiting for the traditional market to recover. We could go for some new markets, such as China."

In doing so, the company has teamed up with the Chinese distributor CAEA Aviation Investment Company and was due to hand over two P180 Avanti II twin turboprop aircrafts to the Beijing company by the end of this year.

"The aircraft is to be operated by CAEA subsidiary Free Sky Aviation in a new club-style shared-use program for private clients," Bingham says.

"Since we are the new kid in this market in China, the top priority for us is to make our brand known to Chinese customers. They can first start to experience our aircraft through charter service. If they like us they will buy from us."

The company is confident of its future in China, he says.

Piaggio Aero is not alone in seeing the potential of the industry in China. The first time Bingham came to the Zhuhai Air Show, in 2004, just 12 aircraft were on display. At last month's show there were 100, illustrating how important China has become for aircraft makers, he says.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China projects that the number of general aviation aircraft will grow from about 1,200 now to about 2,000 in 2015 and between 10,000 and 12,000 in 2020.

Despite a slowdown in the economy, nearly all major companies remain optimistic about the Chinese market. In fact, aircraft makers and consultancies say that China is one of the markets driving demand in general aviation.

The report by the aircraft maker Bombardier predicts that 600 new business jets will be delivered to China by 2019; at present there are little more than 100 in the fleet. That is in line with strong purchases in the three years to 2011, when the number of business jets grew from 20 to 109.

Gao of Beihang University says the number of business jets in China almost doubled from 2010 to 2011 and the new orders for business jets from China is about 20 percent of orders worldwide.

Bombardier says in its report that worldwide demand for business jets correlates with wealth creation, which is largely driven by economic growth.

A report in 2010 by Forbes said there were 1,011 billionaires in the world, 27 percent more than the previous year. The biggest rise was in China, where the number more than doubled to 107.

In China the increasing number of billionaires and multi-millionaires has also driven up sales of other aircraft, such as helicopters.

At the start of this year Bell Helicopter of the US, which first entered China in 1979, had 24 helicopters in service in the country; the company says that it will end the year with almost double that.

"China represents the largest potential market in the world," says John Garrison, president and CEO of Bell Helicopter. "According to the recent forecasts there is a projected need for as many as 2,000 helicopters in China."

Bell says he believes the country "can easily support" 2,000 helicopters in 10 years as the pace of airspace regulation reforms picks up.

But China still lacks infrastructure such as airports for general aviation, and personnel, such as pilots and product support and maintenance, he says.