AsBAA, the Asian Business Aviation Association, recently held its annual summary meeting of the China Chapter. To open, vice chairman Rocky Zhang said: “2019 was a year for China to mature. We have observed success stories among our members and for the association. Under AsBAA's elected leadership, support in mainland China is growing to benefit our members. In 2020, we are optimistic about breakthroughs in policy, the stability of the economy and renewed confidence in the sector. This optimism stems from a series of announcements from the central government that support and promote the general and business aviation sector.”

Zhang also summarised some developments from the general aviation sector including favourable policy initiatives from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). These include clearer regulations for GA and BA including navigation services, landing fees and ATC support at mainland airports. These new regulations encourage general aviation enterprises to operate in non-peak transport airports by giving priority.

AsBAA also shared that the CAAC's plans to support the development of '1+N' GA airports in large cities. Under the initiative, local governments are incentivised to build GA airports and to make passage more efficient. As an example, the government stated its support for permanent CIQ at airports including those in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

During a member-led feedback session, Embraer, Dassault Falcon and CAS Haner Jet all expressed a wish for support from AsBAA to reduce the cost of operator and jet ownership, specifically in relation to sourcing parts under tariff constraints. AsBAA in turn made a commitment to assist with communications with the authorities that will lead to positive outcomes for all. AsBAA committed to driving greater understanding of the features of business aircraft to ensure smoother sourcing of parts. UAS operations director China Carlos Schattenkirchner said: “Through AsBAA, we will support CAAC to understand the needs of our sector and our differences with commercial airlines. For example, CAAC considers every business jet above 29 seats as 'commercial' and applies different permit regulations than private flights. We know that private BBJs and ACJs suffer under this misunderstanding and we will work to resolve this matter and others.”

AsBAA closed the meeting by inviting its members to its annual general meeting on 20 April in Shanghai, and the HR team at Ernst & Young, Beijing, delivered a lecture about the implementation of a new tax law for individual income tax annual tax return filing which went into effect on 1 January, 2020.

“Each member of AsBAA is the founder, witness and practitioner of business aviation development in Asia, playing a leading role in the industry. I hope we can strengthen communication and mutual trust, and jointly promote the vigorous, healthy and sustainable development of our industry.” concluded general manager of member company Global Wings Group Jiguang.