As the China business aviation market matures, Bombardier Business Aircraft sees growing opportunities for its large-cabin jets in the region. While the Global 5000 and 6000 have been the traditional high-demand Bombardier business jets in that market, “We see more opportunity for the Challenger 650. We predict we will see more purchases and should be delivering the first 650 to China shortly,” according to Khader Mattar, vice president of sales for the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and China. Here at ABACE 2016, Bombardier (Chalet 2, static display) is showing a Global 6000 and Challenger 350 and 650.

The business jet market in Asia has matured, according to Mattar. “The idea of using aircraft is no longer a status symbol. It’s more about being a business tool and being recognized as contributing to the growth of the business.” What this means is that more corporations will add business aircraft, instead of individual buyers, and this will lead to growth of China-based flight departments.

Contributing to the overall increase in business aviation activity is that distances between capitals in Asia tend to be fairly long. “Global jets average about 2.5-hour-long flights,” he explained, “but that’s definitely higher in China.”

However, there has been a softening of China business aviation market activity. “This is due to the economic downturn,” Mattar said. “We foresee it to grow again, but for the next two years we expect 2016 and 2017 [to see some] softening. We look forward to see growth coming back in 2018 and 2019.”

There are more than 290 Bombardier business aircraft based in the Greater China, India and Asia-Pacific region, Mattar said. “In 2015, Bombardier had a market share of 50 percent of the deliveries in Asia. We’re still number one in deliveries in the region.” Bombardier forecasts 875 business jet deliveries worth $33 billion in China alone during the next 10 years.

New Service Center in Tianjin

To expand customer support in Asia, Bombardier is opening a new factory-owned service center in Tianjin, scheduled for completion by year-end. Bombardier appointed Lanny Schindelmeiser general manager of the Bombardier Tianjin Aviation Services Co.

The Tianjin service center is a joint venture between the local government and Bombardier, and the facility is entirely new. By the time ABACE opened, about 90 percent of the exterior had been completed. The 8,897-sq-m (95,766-sq-ft) facility will include a hangar, offices and back shop areas.

Bombardier is already hiring personnel in Tinjan to provide line and heavy maintenance services. “We have hired 14 people,” Mattar said, “and they’re already in training.” This includes Bombardier’s type training course for mechanical and avionics certification in Montreal, followed by three months of on-the-job training at the Tucson, Ariz. service center.

“We will be taking it in stages, starting with line maintenance,” he said, “then we will develop additional capabilities.” Parts and components will be located at the Tianjin facility as well, supplementing parts depots in Singapore, Dubai, Frankfurt and Chicago.

Bombardier’s factory-owned service center in Singapore opened in 2014 and has serviced about 800 airplanes. Mattar sees a similar workload developing at the Tianjin facility, but not just to service China-based airplanes. “If you’re traveling in China and have a week doing business, you can use the time to get some maintenance done on the aircraft. We do not see Tianjin as being just for China,” he said.

Bombardier also has four authorized service centers in China. “We foresee the requirement would be for more,” Mattar said, “maybe smaller ones based outside of Beijing and Shanghai for line maintenance and warranty work.”