China's private jet market hits turbulence from graft crackdown

Growth in the mainland's business aviation market took a dive last year as officials, companies and entrepreneurs put off plans to buy private jets amid the central government's crackdown on corruption.

Industry insiders said President Xi Jinping's austerity campaign had weighed on interest for the previously popular status symbols.

The number of private jets on the mainland grew by 16 per cent last year to 297, well below the 26 per cent growth recorded in 2013, according to business aviation consultants Asian Sky Group.

In its "Asia Pacific Business Jet Fleet Report Year End 2014", Asian Sky said the "greater China market is very much in decline", especially on the mainland where there were "spending fears" linked to Beijing's crackdown on corruption.

Jet makers and operators said austerity measures imposed on government agencies and state firms had led to a slump in private jet charters, while many prospective buyers had postponed their orders, the report said.

Briand Greer, president of Honeywell Aerospace Asia-Pacific, said private jets were seen and marketed on the mainland as a luxury item but in the West, they were regarded as an effective and efficient aid to business.

"Unfortunately because business jets are only seen as a luxury right now, they're caught up in that whole thing about anti- extravagance," Greer said.