China’s private-jet market will rebound next year after a leadership transition in the ruling Communist Party while business aviation falls behind in India, the chief of General Dynamics Corp. (GD)’s Gulfstream unit said.
China is building about 10 airports a year and easing flying restrictions to spur demand, Gulfstream President Larry Flynn said yesterday in an interview. He said sales waned before the country’s once-a-decade power shift, which gets under way with a Communist Party congress starting Nov. 8 in Beijing.
“They’re waiting on the new government in China, so our Chinese orders were down this year from last year,” Flynn said at the National Business Aviation Association conference in Orlando, Florida. “The new government gets installed, people go back to normal business, you’ll see more orders out of China.”
Gulfstream’s role as a producer of private jets such as the long-range G650 gives it a perspective on plane sales inside and outside the U.S. Official support for corporate aviation in China will help the industry expand more quickly in the world’s most-populous country, Flynn said.
30/10/12 Thomas Black/Bloomberg
