DASSAULT FALCON JET has formed a joint venture with China Xinhua Airlines and Avion Pacific to begin charter operations in China with a Falcon 50 business jet.
The Dassault-owned, Chinese-registered aircraft will be based in Beijing and operated by China Xinhua. Hong Kong-based Avion will provide marketing support. The aircraft will be maintained by Hawker Pacific of Singapore.
The joint venture, Oriental Falcon Jet Service, is negotiating letters of intent with prospective customers, and Dassault says that the initial response "-is nearly enough to account for full utilisation of the aircraft". Operations are to begin in the second quarter and the company says that it intends to add more Falcons to the charter fleet "-and expand our operations throughout Asia".
The move follows the setting up early in 1996 of the first Western-style corporate air-charter operation in China in a deal which links Swiss-based Global Aviation, Bombardier Aerospace and China Southern Airlines.
During the first 12 months of operations there have been changes to the aircraft line-up and their location. The original scheme was to base two Learjet 31s, a Learjet 35A and 36A and a Canadair Challenger 601 at a fixed-base operation near China Southern's Zhuhai site .
Over the period, the scheme has been refined to involve a 601 and Learjet 36 based at Guangzhou, as well as a 601 and Learjet 35 based in Hong Kong.
Bombardier has dominated the Chinese market to date, scoring its biggest success locally in January when it secured a $116 million deal with the Beijing Government to supply five Canadair Corporate Jetliners - the corporate variant of the Regional Jet.
The order, the largest placed to date in the Chinese corporate market, will result in three aircraft being delivered this year, and a further two in 1998 for use as VIP aircraft. China United Airlines will operate the aircraft alongside five Challengers which it has operated since 1986. Two Learjets are also on charter to Hainan Airlines.
Source: Flight International
