Press Release

Issued by Asian Sky Group.

October 10, 2017

Hong Kong business aviation consulting company Asian Sky Group (ASG) has released its first China GA Report which showcases China's growing general aviation industry, plus essential government and grass roots initiatives. The report will be released in English during the NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (Oct 10-12) in Las Vegas, USA. The Chinese edition of this report was released on September 14 at the China Helicopter Expo in Tianjin, China.

“There are some basic, necessary pillars required to have a healthy general aviation industry in China,” says ASG managing director, Jeffrey Lowe. “One is certainly support from the top down, which we have recently witnessed with numerous regulatory and policy initiatives put in place by the Chinese central government. But another essential pillar must be from the bottom up and this means, at a grass roots level, interest in and development of general aviation.”

Lowe continues: “ASG's first China GA Report attempts to outline all of the issues and present a 'first of its kind' comprehensive overview of the state of GA in China.”

Highlights of the report include:

- In the past few decades, China's aviation industry has flourished. The government is now looking to tap into the potential of general aviation (GA), through new initiatives.

- China's GA fleet is made-up of 2,776 aircraft, as of June 2017. This includes fixed-wing aircraft (1,808), rotary-wing aircraft (903), and airship and hot air balloons (65).

- As of June 2017, there were 345 CAAC-approved GA enterprises. To meet the growing demand for pilots from both commercial and GA expanding fleets, the number of Part 141 training schools within China has increased from 12 in 2012 to 22 in 2017 and the number of training schools in the Asia-Pacific region, outside of China, that meet the CAAC Part 141 requirement has increased from 23 in 2012 to 27 in 2016. Currently, the number of registered student pilots is 4,853.

- There are only 311 GA airports in China catering to the ever-growing GA fleet of aircraft, China however has plans to increase the number of GA airports to 500 by 2020. By 2030, 2,000 airports are expected to be built, with a final ambitious target of having at least one GA airport in each of the 2,800 counties.

- As of 2017 June, there were 224 commercial airports in China, with the total commercial passenger traffic reaching 1.016 billion. Expectations are total passenger traffic will reach 1.5 billion by 2020. Commercial passenger traffic is concentrated at hub airports, with 21 of the top airports accounting for 70% of the country's passenger traffic.

ASG also released, on September 5, 2017, the first edition of its Asia Pacific Infrastructure Report which is available digitally, in English and Chinese.