CJI ASIA 2024 EVENT REVIEW
Optimism in Asia
CJI ASIA 2024 EVENT REVIEW
Optimism in Asia
THE environment you are in can change your memory. A fisherman in a bar will often forget the exact weight of the fish they returned to the water. Golfers sitting in the 19th hole often have trouble recalling the exact number of strokes they took. People attending conferences or conventions tend to inflate quite how well their business is going.
To be fair, that did not happen at Corporate Jet Investor Asia 2024. There was a lot of honesty both on and off stage. The region’s fleet has fallen since 2020 and as one leading operator said: “Business is really tough. No one can deny that.”
It is still a very competitive market. Some 75% of the more than 300 delegates at CJI Asia believed there are too many operators and that competition for aircraft is fierce.
Australia, one of the world’s most mature business aviation markets, has seen 10% growth since Covid, according to Jetcraft’s Daniel Renwick. With 230 jets, it represents some 20% of the Asian-Pacific fleet. Australia has historically been a pre-owned market, and Renwick says the fleet has modernised in the last few years.
Southeast Asia has also seen significant growth and there was a lot of excitement about India. Japan is also seeing more demand.
Among the things that make business aviation so exciting are the regional differences. Operators say that few customers are asking about the environment or for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). A manager at one large operator was asked to contact customers to see if they are interested in using SAF. “I just spoke to one of the region’s largest coal exporters to ask if he is interested,” he said. “They weren’t.”
In the long term, people are still upbeat about the market. Some 74% were fairly optimistic, with the rest very optimistic at our CJI Asia conference.
Admittedly, it is a self-selecting audience. If you do not believe this, you should probably work in a different industry.
