Mainland China: The Private Jets Industry’s Undiscovered Country?

Despite the pessimistic future outlook by leading economic pundits, is this country with the fastest growing billionaires still the private jets / executive jets industry’s “undiscovered country?

By: Ringo Bones 

Even though leading economic pundits still paint a pessimistic outlook when it comes to The People’s Republic of China’s future annual economic growth rate by saying it can no longer do a repeat of the economic prosperity that it experienced during the first decade of the 21^st Century, the country is still well known for having the fastest growing number of billionaires – which Ali Baba’s Jack Ma is a good example. But believe it or not, Mainland China still doesn’t have a private jets / executive jets industry providing its still growing population of billionaires, thus – inexplicably – making the country an “undiscovered country” when it comes to private jets.

In a BBC interview back in September 14, 2014 of Robert Molsbergen, the Chief Operating Officer of the Warren Buffett owned NetJets already has plans to establish a private jets / executive jets business in Mainland China given that nobody else has done it yet. NetJets had recently negotiated with local Mainland Chinese business partners which only suggest the company’s seriousness to establish a private jets / executive jets industry / service to the still untapped region. Even though there are still fears that foreign companies are still not treated evenhandedly by the monolithic Beijing communist party, the burgeoning Mainland China’s richest 1 percent is just too tempting to ignore. 

Mainland Chinese billionaires or not, air travel is projected to increase by 5.7 percent throughout Asia by 2017 according to an assessment made by the International Air Transport Association – IATA – back in 2013, so even if the private jets / executive jets demand plateaus, Warren Buffett’s NetJets could diversify into a bespoke high-end airline that caters to Asia’s millionaires by providing a 1950s style service to those who can afford it. The whole of Asia could be the global aviation industry’s fastest growing sector.