China's GA Sector

According to Alexis Haakensen from the U.S. International Trade Administration there have been numerous U.S. based companies who have had Chinese investment include Epic Air, Teledyne Continental, and Cirrus. Chinese firms have also looked at acquiring Grob out of Germany, Piper, and Emivest.  AVIC, which is one of China's main aerospace firms believes that including foreign firms, especially from the U.S., will help Chinese aircraft more easily gain certification in the west, where most general aviation aircraft are currently sold. In late March 2012, Cessna announced that they are in discussions to form joint ventures to produce business jets in China. 

Cessna has specifically been working with the China Aviation Industry General Aircraft Company Ltd., (CAIGA) and the Shijiazhuang Municipal Government. This agreement has been progressing from the framework that Cessna entered into with CAIGA parent company, Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), in March 2012.  The current plan with this eventual joint venture will be the final assembly, sales, and customer support for the Cessna Caravan in China for the Chinese market.  It is difficult to see if there will be any ramifications for the US General Aviation sector.  For the time being it seems that all of the companies going into joint ventures with Chinese firms are continuing operations and retaining all of their employees.  Currently the relationships between companies are growing and beginning to build.  It is very interesting to see where these joint ventures will lead since these are brand new relationships.  Cessna is very excited about the current expansion in General Aviation in China, as you can tell by Cessna president and CEO Scott Ernest.  He states that: “We continue to be extremely pleased with the cooperative relationship between AVIC and Cessna. China’s potential in general aviation is tremendous, and represents an exciting opportunity for Cessna. Since we do expect China to be one of the largest general aviation markets in ten year’s time, we are excited to see that it will be Cessna aircraft that will help meet this demand in the years to come.”
 

But what has led to this rapid expansion in Chinese General Aviation? There has been continual growth in China and that has led to in 2010 China was the world's largest exporter in the world.  Along with the continual growth of their economy and the continued decay of Europe's economy, China has been able to step up to the table and begin making joint ventures with numerous foreign countries.  At the Asian Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition held in Shanghai from March 27 to 29 Chinese officials spoke about the plans for business and civil aviation in China.  Xia Xinghua, who is the deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) spoke a lot of the changes that are being made for the infrastructure of China.  The Five-year plan includes to relax bans on low-altitude airspace, promote the development of the general aviation industry, reform the airspace management system and increase the efficiency of the allocation and utilization of airspace resources. 

As far as the impact that will be on the General Aviation sector in the U.S. it is currently unclear, however there is a lot of speculation that it will slowly decrease over time as numerous people will be heading to China.  This will be largely caused due to the need for a lot of general aviation jobs being created in China.  If the predictions of a great expansion in China's general aviation sector then there will be a tremendous need for professionals to assist in the growth, planning and execution of these new policies.  Although I feel there will be a slow decrease in U.S. general aviation, I feel that it will plateau eventually and although there will be a slightly less populous GA sector in the U.S. it will continue to make large contributions and flourish.