Chinese Communist party policymaking may, at first glance, appear to have little bearing on what happens in American, Canadian and French factories, where most of the world’s large business jets are assembled. Yet some observers believe that a crackdown on corruption in China over recent years has helped to damp demand from the wealthiest Chinese for the biggest and most prestigious private aircraft.
The tail-off in purchases from China’s rich — in contrast to sales of helicopters — marks a change of fortunes in the market for the biggest, longest-range private jets. Teal Group, the Virginia-based aviation analyst, expects the Chinese slowdown to be one reason for a drop in sales of the largest business aircraft from $3.5bn this year to $3.35bn in 2018.
Demand for long-range, large-cabin jets remained robust in the decade after the financial crisis, even while the call for many smaller aircraft models had slumped.