{"id":164,"date":"2007-09-06T14:31:12","date_gmt":"2007-09-06T14:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-finance-zone.co.uk\/business\/asia-prepares-for-private-plane-boom\/"},"modified":"2007-09-06T14:31:12","modified_gmt":"2007-09-06T14:31:12","slug":"asia-prepares-for-private-plane-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/2007\/09\/06\/asia-prepares-for-private-plane-boom\/","title":{"rendered":"Asia prepares for private plane boom"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Dixon sells private planes for a living. <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
\"Bombardier<\/p>\n
Asia is a prime market for private planes – but are its airports ready?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

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

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Time and money<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s the sort of life to which many Asians are now aspiring.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“The business is growing and the airport infrastructure is here.”<\/p>\n

That kind of lifestyle comes at a cost. The Bombardier Global Express carries a price tag of $53m (\u00c2\u00a326m).<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\n
\n
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<\/strong>
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Chris Buchholz<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

But Asia presents certain challenges to the keen private jet owner, whether personal or corporate.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Dixon sells private planes for a living. Asia is a prime market for private planes – but are its<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}