Singapore has 7th largest mid to large-sized private jet fleet in Asia-Pacific region

Singapore

SINGAPORE boasts the seventh-largest fleet of mid to large-cabin private jets in the Asia-Pacific region. An aircraft financing solutions provider has found that the ctiy-state has a fleet of 45 mid-sized, heavy and jet airliners as at March 2017. Together, they represent three-quarters of the country's total fleet of private jets, also called business jets.

Singapore ranks just below Malaysia, which has 50 such aircraft. The latter make up 55 per cent of business jets in the country.

China has the biggest fleet of mid-sized and heavy private jets in the region. It boasts 363 of these aircraft, which represents 70 per cent of the country's total fleet of business aircraft.

Hong Kong ranks second with a fleet of 128, which is 92 per cent of the territory's business aircraft fleet. India is third with 120 such planes, representing 45 per cent of business jets in the country.

The Asia-Pacific region has a total of 1,077 of mid-sized and large private planes. They make up 38 per cent of the region's business jets.

These findings were compiled by Global Jet Capital, an American financial solutions provider, after analysing online database JetNet in March.

Among the 45 mid to large-sized business jets that Singapore has, 12 of them were delivered between 2012 and 2016, representing 3 per cent of all deliveries to the region. Their estimated total value is about US$600 million.

Global Jet Capital noted that even though not many of the larger business aircraft purchases in Asia involve leases, the company has received more enquiries about leasing recently.

This may be attributed to interested owners wanting to free up their balance sheets, while lessening their risk burden and shortening the timeframe needed for planning and getting ownership of the aircraft, said Violet Kwek, sales director for Greater China and North Asia at Global Jet Capital.

Global Jet Capital's findings come after a recent survey by Hong-Kong-based private jet chartering firm L'Voyage which found that Singapore ranks second in the Asia-Pacific region in charter jets per billionaire. Singapore has 30 charter jets based here for 28 billionaires, eclipsing South-east Asian counterparts such as Indonesia and Thailand.

Australia leads the pack with 57 charter jets for its 27 billionaires, for a jet-to-billionaire ratio of 2.1.

Singapore's Seletar Airport, often used for business jets and private jets, is undergoing an overhaul and will receive a new S$50 million passenger terminal by end-2018. The existing terminal, with its spartan facilities, was built in 1982, making the arrival of the upcoming terminal a much-anticipated event.