Analyst Predicts As Many As 1,700 Will Be Delivered Over The Next Seven Years

A second phase in the development of the very light jet (VLJ) market is about get underway, according to a new study by aerospace consultants PMI Media Limited, and more than 1,700 aircraft of this type will be delivered in the next seven years.

“This is a market defying logic,” according to the report’s author Philip Butterworth-Hayes. “The most innovative and market changing aircraft concepts are coming from companies with their roots in the Far East. And the most exciting new personal jet concept, an aspirational aircraft aimed at wealthy personal jet owners wanting to trade up from their piston or turboprop aircraft to a single-engined jet, is being pioneered by a company owned - ultimately – by the government of the People's Republic of China.”

The report – the fifth in a series of focused studies on this sector that PMI has published since 2006 – examines the shape, extent and dimension of the re-emergent VLJ market. Demand for these aircraft collapsed with the banking crisis of 2008, but recent years have seen two established manufacturers develop a successful line of mature programs. By the end of 2013, more than 1,000 VLJs will have been delivered.

One of the major changes to market over the coming years, according to the report, will be demand for new VLJs from customers in the Middle East and Far East, while the VLJ sales to aircraft operators in Latin America will fall from the current 21% of global demand to 15% by 2019, behind Europe. “We still have yet to see whether affordable jets can really take root in the general aviation market,” said Philip Butterworth-Hayes. “We believe they can and will – though it will take longer than predicted.”

New models recently entering the market include the Hondajet and the Eclipse EA 550.

(Eclipse 550 pictured in file photo)

FMI: http://hondajet.honda.com, www.eclipse.aero