March 23--Hawker Beechcraft Corp., which will show three of its aircraft at an upcoming airshow in China, said Thursday that it sees strong long-term growth for business aircraft in Asia.
Demand for business aircraft in the region has increased dramatically since 2001. According to recent Jetnet research, deliveries of business aircraft across Asia increased by 133 percent in the five years from 2001-2005 to 2006-2010.
Asia's share of worldwide business aircraft deliveries increased from 5.4 percent to 8.7 percent between the first half of the decade and the second, while North America saw its share drop from 67 percent to 55 percent.
Hawker Beechcraft saw a 103 percent increase in the number of jets and a 97 percent increase in the number of turboprops it delivered to Asia between 2006-2010 and 2001-2005. Jetnet data shows that HBC accounted for 41 percent of the total number of deliveries in Asia during the past decade.
At next week's Asian Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition in Shanghai, China, the company will bring its Hawker 4000, the Hawker 900XP and a Beechcraft King Air C90GTx.
"Over the past few years Asia has really been the driving force behind the global economy, with burgeoning economies such as China and India helping the region post GDP growth scores of 8.3 percent," said Sean McGeough, vice president for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
McGeough said the proportion of business aircraft that are for sale -- often used as an indicator of the health of the whole market -- is around 7 percent in Asia compared with 12 percent in North America and 16 percent in Europe.
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