Firm plans more showrooms as first airplane store takes off

The successful debut of China's first airplane showroom in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, is propelling Shanghai-based General Dynamic Aero Tech Co to open more bricks-and-mortar stores to satisfy the industry's growing demand.

In April last year, the shop, GD Aero E Store, was launched in Ningbo's Meishan bonded area. It sells general and private aircraft, and offers demonstrations, maintenance, operational support, supplies and insurance.

In less than a year, the store sold 95 airplanes, more than double the number the company sold in 2014, which encouraged it to open a new branch in February in Central China's Hubei province.

"General Dynamic Aero Tech started to provide sales and maintenance services several years ago, but we always thought it was necessary to have a bricks-and-mortar store, just like an automobile showroom, where customers could see and test the real products," said Sun Liguo, vice-president of General Dynamic Aero Tech and general manager of the Ningbo store.

The store's 2,000-square-meter airplane hangar can showcase 10 jets, while the newly opened Wuhan center in Hubei has a 1,000-sq-m hangar.

The 95 planes sold in Ningbo were priced between 4 million yuan ($614,000) and 120 million, Sun said.

"The majority of the aircraft sold are not for private use, which accounts for only 10 to 15 percent. Most of them are used in industry, agriculture, forest, building, medical aid, meteorological detection and flight training," Sun said.

The booming airplane market follows the government's November 2010 decision to gradually open its low-altitude airspace, under 1,000 meters, to promote the general aviation sector.

General aviation requires less land than other transportation methods, and the opening of additional of low-altitude airspace will give the sector a boost in the future, said Chen Zhuo, an industrial analyst from China Merchants Securities Co.

"The development of general aviation lags far behind the commercial airline sector, where China owns the world's second-largest aircraft fleet by size," Chen said.

China's general aviation market will reach 150 billion yuan by 2020, the National Business Daily reported, citing a prediction by the Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

There were 2,127 aircraft registered for general aviation at the end of the year, up 8.9 percent from the previous year, but much slower than the 18 percent growth rate in 2014, according to data from CARNOC.com, one of China's largest civil aviation web portals.

Li Lei, an analyst at Minzu Securities Co, said boosting China's general aviation sector will require support at the policy and regulatory level, and infrastructure construction.

Sun is positive about the outlook for China's general aviation, and said the company will open more physical stores in the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Fujian.

"Just like the development of China's private car fleet over the past decades, the market for private jets in China will take off eventually," he said.

wang_ying@chinadaily.com.cn