Research from Global Capital Jet, a provider of financing solutions for large-cabin, long-range business jets, has revealed strong growth in the Indian business aviation market with 70 mid to heavy business jets delivered between 2006-2015 with a combined value of US$3.5bn.
This growth is being driven by an increase in GDP in the country, according to Simon Davies, vice president, sales – India, Global Jet Capital. “For the fiscal year 2015-2016, India’s GDP growth was around 7.6%, and some market commentators are predicting that growth will gain momentum in 2016-2017, with GDP growth of around 7.8%,” he said.
“Demand for business aviation is closely correlated to economic growth so we believe in the long-term, India will see a significant increase in demand for business jets. This is already a very attractive market for us, and we expect it to become even more appealing in the coming years.”
The Indian business aircraft fleet has a greater proportion of mid-sized to heavy jets than the global average – 44% of the Indian fleet is classed as mid-sized to heavy, compared with a worldwide figure of 31%, indicating that demand for finance from Indian buyers is likely to be greater than from other regions. According to the research, 80% of the funding used to purchase these aircraft, which typically cost between US$25m and US$75m each, was through external financing.
