High Fliers Fly
High in Chinese Sky
6 November 2006
With a little
over 100,000 yuans (12,500 usd, or 16,666
aud), you can own a private jet. How does
that sound?
At China’s
Aircraft Expo in Zhuhai, a large number
of private jets go on display, with price
tags from as cheap as 100,000 yuans to as
expensive as 20 million yuans.
The cheapest one
is the single-seat mini jet that flies up
to 140 kilometres per hour. But if you
have 2 million yuans to burn, you may
like to get a Little Eagle 500 (小鹰-500), which can
accommodate four to five passengers with
the maximum flight speed up to 1,640
kilometres per hour. Being able to take
off and land from wherever you please –
highway, road, street and airport runway
– it is ideal for flight training,
business travel, agriculture and forest
and flying doctor services, as well as
aviation photography and sports.
Designed and
manufactured by Chinese engineers, Little
Eagle 500 is 70 to 80 percent cheaper
than those produced in the overseas
markets. So far, the producer has already
signed about 150 contracts to provide the
jets to companies for business purposes
as well as individuals for private
usages.
Some Chinese
experts predict that China’s private
aviation market will take off faster than
expected and quickly grow into a 1
trillion yuans business.
7000 Extra
Pilots Urgently Needed, Says China
According to
China’s Civil Aviation Bureau, by year
2010, China will need extra 7,000 pilots
for its huge air transport fleet that
will consist of 1250 flights in five
years. At 2005, it is reported that there
were only about 12000 pilots in China. It
seems the pilot training business will be
the first to boom and air transport
flight instructors will be hotly sought
after before anyone else.
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