Royal Jet, the UAE-headquartered luxury flight services company, is looking to increase its presence in China, where demand for aircraft charter services is growing at an estimated 30 percent annually.
The company, especially strong in long-distance flights with a fleet that includes the world's largest commercial offering of five Boeing Business Jets (BBJ), plans to grow its flight hours in China to 15-20 percent of its total in a few years from the current 5 percent, or 500 flight hours a year.
"The economic boom in China is playing a vital role in many markets," said Bilal Yousuf, the company's vice-president of operations. "We see a lot of business opportunities from Chinese companies and delegations."
China's emerging executive air travel market has attracted local and international service providers and aircraft manufacturers.
Expanding to China shortly after it was founded in 2003, Royal Jet now has a flight mission each month to China.
The Chinese market is growing at three times the average rate of 10 percent worldwide.
"Business aviation is growing at a phenomenal rate in Asia-Pacific, in particular China," Yousuf said while attending the international luxury lifestyle show, Extravaganza, held in Shanghai over the weekend.
In response to the boom in executive air travel, Royal Jet has decided to more than double its fleet size to 25 aircraft in the next four to five years. It reported US$70 million in revenue in 2006, which is expected to exceed US$100 million this year.
The company sees enormous opportunities opening up with the Beijing Olympics, when sports teams, delegations and spectators will add to the demand for private jets.
Yousuf said the company has reached an agreement with the UAE government to airlift its sports teams to Beijing during the Olympics.
Royal Jet, which can fly clients from and to any airport - even military bases that are not accessible to airlines flying scheduled services - targets mainly the highest-end delegations and individuals such as private banking clients.
It costs about dollar for a BBJ, which can accommodate up to 52 passengers, to fly an hour. The charge for a prototype of Gulfstreams (G300), which seats a maximum of 14, is 7,500 dollar per hour.
Customers are subject to local flight rules and regulations, which require passport and visa for the destination country as well as background check.
(Xinhua News Agency June 13, 2007)