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China’s airline industry is booming but GA industry barely rates a second glance – why?
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Wu Zhendong, chairman of the Asian Business Aviation Association, recently stated that when the GA industry in China began over half a century ago in 1951, its primary goal was to carry out agricultural missions. It was not until after the cultural revolution in 1971 that China’s GA industry underwent a planning and revival phase that lasted roughly two decades.
After 1996, China’s annual GA growth represented the highest growth in the world. But a lack of aviation infrastructure, high operating costs, regulatory restraints, and unfavourable public perceptions stopped the nation from reaching its full GA potential, including the use of helicopters.
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The 2008 earthquake in Sichuan served as a costly wake-up call of the need for a much more robust aerial disaster relief and emergency rescue system, and was the seed that sparked high-level discussions for easing regulatory restrictions that were in existence at that time.
In June 2019, just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Boeing claimed that “after decades of economic and population growth, China is set to become the world’s largest domestic aviation market by 2028”. This is due to outbound Chinese travel projected to grow between 4 and 6 per cent annually. Further, Airbus predicted China’s airline fleet will grow to more than 7,400 by 2037.
In contrast, the GA industry, including rotorcraft, is almost non-existent, when compared to other much smaller aviation orientated nations. Data current to August 2020, indicates GA aircraft in China reached 2,930, an increase of 6 per cent over the past year. They were operated by 443 GA companies. However, the growth rate of new companies had slowed even prior to the pandemic.
One curious feature of the Chinese aviation industry is the enormous number of airline pilots, technicians and cabin crew who are trained overseas due to the lack of China-based airline training resources.
The helicopter industry, to a lesser degree, has this problem. The number of helicopters operating in China is less than half those in Australia (or one-third of those in Australia and New Zealand). China GA registrations are listed as: aeroplanes – 1,472, (50 per cent); helicopters – 1,092 (37 per cent); and others including 326 business jets (13 per cent).
COVID-19 recovery is now well underway. In 2019, GA flight hours increased by 14 per cent to more than 1 million. Flight hours in 2020 have been affected by the COVID-19 epidemic causing a decrease in February and March, compared with the same period in 2019. But in April and May, flight hours quickly recovered as the pandemic came under control.
In June 2020, flight hours exceeded the total of the same period in 2019!
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