The 2019 Asian Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition (ABACE) will run this week from Tuesday to Thursday at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport (SHA), with several hundred exhibitors presenting their wares at the Shanghai Hawker Pacific Business Aviation Service Centre (SHPBASC), which will be hosting the event for the 11th time. ABACE is organized by the U.S. NBAA with the Asian Business Aviation Association (AsBAA) with the support of the Shanghai Airports Authority (SAA).
ABACE 2019 will officially open with the keynote address on Tuesday at 9 a.m. delivered by Xin Feng, president of SAA; Yun Qin, Secretary of the Party Committee and chairman of the board of directors of SAA; and NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen.
Various sessions will keep visitors informed while the weather forecast promises to be kind to those browsing the large static display, with more than 30 aircraft and helicopters parked in front of the SHPBASC hangars at SHA.
Focus sessions at ABACE will cover topics such as business jet finance, maintenance, and airport access, as well as a market outlook panel, an AsBAA update and awards ceremony, and a GAAC symposium on the future of general aviation in China. The last day of the show will focus on careers, with AsBAA’s Discovery section leading the next generation to learn more about how they can become involved in the industry.
Deer Jet To Introduce Helo Service into Greater Bay Area
China’s Deer Jet is planning to introduce helicopter service in the Greater Bay Area as the business aircraft operator sees rising demand for its offerings in Hong Kong, Zhuhai, Shenzhen, and Macau. Deer Jet will be partnering with Beijing Capital Helicopters Co. Ltd. for the venture and is evaluating the Airbus Helicopters H125 and H135, but has not yet decided on a time period for the launch, the company told AIN.
Deer Jet has an ongoing partnership with Beijing Capital Helicopters for other regions in China. The Beijing municipal government and Hainan Airlines Group jointly established Beijing Capital Helicopters in 2011.
A Deer Jet spokeswoman said more Chinese citizens now see business aircraft as a tool to save time. The Chinese business aviation market is still dominated by large-cabin jets, although there is some growth in the light and midsize jet segments. Beijing-based Deer Jet operates a fleet of Gulfstream G650/650ERs, G550s, and G450s; Bombardier Challenger 604s; and Dassault Falcon 7Xs.
Deer Jet also recently launched its own aircraft maintenance credit program that includes AOG, scheduled check, line, and cabin maintenance, and is divided into four categories according to the amount of shop time involved: 100, 300, 900, and 2,000 hours. Its MRO facility is based at Beijing Capital Airport and is approved by the CAAC and FAA to perform aircraft maintenance.
The “seemingly never-ending” turmoil in the offshore oil and gas (O&G) market made for another tumultuous year in the Asian civil turbine rotary market in 2018, but the overall fleet size still expanded 4.6 percent thanks in part to growth in the medevac segment, according to Asian Sky Group. According to its latest Fleet Report covering the civil turbine helicopter market, the fleet in the region grew to 4,265 at the end of 2018.
ASG managing director Jeffrey Lowe pointed to “rays of sunshine,” including increased demand for light helicopters as the emergency medical services (EMS) market expands. Australia remained the largest market in Asai-Pacific, followed by Mainland China, Japan, and New Zealand.
Airbus Helicopters easily accounts the largest share, with 1,810 rotorcraft in Asia-Pacific, representing 42 percent of the region’s civil turbine fleet. Bell follows at 27 percent share, with 1,159 helicopters in the region, followed by Leonardo at 10 percent (445 helicopters). Leonardo, however, experienced the largest fleet expansion percentage-wise in 2018, with 11 percent growth. Robinson followed at 8 percent and Bell at 5 percent.
Farnborough, UK-based Gama Aviation has started to build its general sales agent (GSA) network in Asia-Pacific—aimed at getting more aircraft owners in the region using its management services—as it eyes opportunities to grow its footprint out of Hong Kong, particularly into Mainland China.
“We’ll try to replicate in China in the next couple of years what we’d done in Hong Kong [with Hutchison Whampoa]," Gama Aviation Asia managing director Sergio Oliveira e Silva told AIN. “We’re hoping to identify strong local partners around Asia to act as our GSAs. If that allows us to grow the fleet, it could lead to acquisitions at a later stage. So we want to expand our footprint in Asia, but Hong Kong will always be the regional office for Gama.”
On the maintenance side, Gama established a foothold at Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok in late 2017 when it signed a collaboration agreement with China Aircraft Services Ltd. (CASL) as the exclusive GSA to sell CASL’s business maintenance capability in Asia. Oliveira e Silva said, “China needs a line maintenance network, and we have already started talks.” The majority of aircraft currently have to go outside of China for maintenance, he noted.
Private aviation lender Global Jet Capital (GJC) sees the Asia-Pacific business aviation market heating up over the next 10 years. The U.S.-based company predicts that, over the next decade, this region could receive as many as 581 new midsize to large-cabin business jets worth approximately $20.9 billion. Over that period, GJC estimates the value of new deliveries to the region will climb 10.9 percent annually—the fastest in the world.
The Asia-Pacific business aircraft fleet currently has one of the world’s highest percentages of midsize to large-cabin jets—at 71 percent—and the Chinese market, in particular, has long swayed toward new aircraft acquisitions. However, GJC COO David Labrozzi believes that is slowly changing. “There is now a significant appetite for and acceptance of late-model, high-pedigree, large-cabin, preowned aircraft,” he told AIN.
Indeed, the company now expects to see more than 2,200 transactions in used midsize and larger business jets—worth more than $13 billion combined—across the region over the next 10 years. As a result, the company recently expanded its presence in the region with the opening of an enlarged office in Hong Kong’s Admiralty District, headed up by Violet Kwek, its sales director for Greater China and North Asia.
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