Flamboyant Fang Tieji, chairman of real estate and construction conglomerate Jilin Hanxing Group, is among the property developers that want to jump on the general aviation bandwagon.
"More than half of the 20-odd applications for setting up general aviation companies in my region are from property developers," said Feng Hongsheng, director of general aviation of the central and southern regional administration of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
The proposals include building airports and flying clubs that would take up considerable land.
Jilin Hanxing's Fang said he wanted to invest in 10 general aviation airports and 40 fixed-base aviation services nationwide in the next two to five years. He acquired a fixed-based operation (FBO) in Zhuhai Sanzhao airport two years ago.
An FBO provides fuelling, parking and hangaring of light aircraft and business jets.
Fang (pictured) is a colourful personality who posed for photographers at the recent Zhuhai air show with a bevy of beauties. Among them was his special marketing weapon: five young women who are training to become pilots and help address the country's shortage of flight crew.
He said the property arm of China Communication Construction signed a framework agreement with his company earlier this year regarding joint development of general aviation airports. The investor relations department of China Communication Construction said it was not aware of the deal.
Present general aviation airports, such as the FBO in Zhuhai, are underused because not much private flying takes place due to the highly regulated air space on the mainland, where 80 per cent of it is controlled by the military.
Low usage meant losses for the airport operators and, in a bid to create incentives to build more airports, local governments were offering preferential prices and tax breaks to general aviation airport developers, said Feng.
"Residential projects will also be allowed as an integral aspect of the airport," he added.
Using private jets or yachts as gimmicks for high-end residential projects had been done before, said Alan Chiang, head of residential property at DTZ on the mainland.
Since Beijing is tightening land supply, developers are acquiring land in the name of other industries supported by the central government, such as tourism and research and development for technology.
But Chiang has a warning for developers that want to use airport projects to acquire land.
"The cost of running an airport is much higher than a tourism park or R&D centre," he said. "It may not be easy to make a profit at the end of the day."
General aviation, which refers to all flying activities other than commercial airline flights, is still in its infancy on the mainland. Crucial to its development were the availability of airports and air space, said Qian Wei, an official from China Aviation Industry General Aircraft, which assembles planes in Zhuhai.
There are only some 70 airports dedicated for general aviation and 286 airports in total in China, compared with 18,000 airports in the United States.
But planners were hoping to change that, and 157 new general aviation airports were due to be built in Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan by 2015, Feng said. There are now only 11 such airports in the central and south region.
157
There are plans to build this many general aviation airports in six provinces by 2015
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