Asia prepares for private plane boom

David Dixon sells private planes for a living.

Asia is a prime market for private planes – but are its airports ready?

As head of sales in Asia for Canadian manufacturer Bombardier, he is responsible for marketing his employer’s private jets to Asians.

And Bombardier is banking on a new model – the Global Express, on display at the Hong Kong Asian Aerospace show this week – to woo more rich Asian customers.

The interior of the aircraft is fitted out with all the things one would need to be comfortable on a long flight including fold-out twin beds, a dining area and tables that are fully functioning work areas when needed, but can be tucked away when not in use.

It also boasts the latest technology including what Mr Dixon describes as the “bordello setting” where all the window blinds shut automatically at a touch of a button, and ambient pink lights come on.

Time and money

It’s the sort of life to which many Asians are now aspiring.

“Here in Hong Kong, five years ago there were a thousand private planes coming in and going out,” he says. “Now it’s 3,000.

“The business is growing and the airport infrastructure is here.”

That kind of lifestyle comes at a cost. The Bombardier Global Express carries a price tag of $53m (£26m).

Still, aside from rich individuals, a key growth market in Asia is with companies, whose busy chief executives see the saving in time as far more precious than the cost of the plane itself.

In Asia, you don’t have general aviation airports – you have to use the airports dominated by the airlines that have very high landing fees Chris Buchholz

But Asia presents certain challenges to the keen private jet owner, whether personal or corporate.

Once a plane is bought, it has to be maintained. Perhaps it needs to be chartered out when not in use – a service for which many in Hong Kong turn to Metrojet, the territory’s largest operator of private jets and helicopters.