Wealthy Chinese businesspeople are resorting to chartering private jets rather than buying them because of economic uncertainty, stricter capital controls and Beijing’s crackdown on corruption.
The business jet fleet in greater China grew at a breakneck pace in the years before President Xi Jinping took power in 2012 but sales have dropped sharply since then because of the slowing economy and fears that luxury purchases would attract the interest of Beijing’s graftbusters.
Greater China, including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, had 477 private jets at the end of last year, more than 40 per cent of the total in the Asia-Pacific region, according to Asian Sky Group, a private jet consultancy based in Hong Kong. While that is a sharp rise from just 118 in 2009, the fleet is forecast to grow by just 1 per cent this year.