Asian business aviation association to press on with its own plans
The Asian Business Aviation Association plans to press on with its strategy for Asia, starting with a collaboration on the Asian Aerospace 2009 to be held in Hong Kong in September.
The move follows the decision earlier this year by the US-based National Business Aviation Association to cancel February's annual Asian Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition because of the global economic crisis. ABACE is organised jointly by the NBAA and the AsBAA, but it is not clear if the event will return next year and the AsBAA says it is keen to promote events to plug the gap.
"Our mission at the AsBAA is to promote business aviation in the region. That is why we are working with Asian Aerospace to provide a networking platform and a dedicated conference for the industry in September," says Chuck Woods, chairman of the AsBAA. "If the NBAA believes in Asia and decides to come back to the region and support it, we will work with them. But if they decide that they do not want to be in Asia, we will go ahead without them."
Asia's business aviation market has grown rapidly from a low base over the past few years, but this has screeched to a halt as several potential buyers held back due to the global economic crisis. As elsewhere in the world, the charter business has also slowed down as companies reduced executive travel to cut costs.
Part of the AsBAA's problem is that it is still finding its feet after being reformed in 2004 following several years of dormancy. Some in the Asian business aviation community say that it focuses too much on China and is not representative of the entire Asian region, including key markets such as India and South-East Asia.
It has also found it hard to sign new members and persuade the existing ones to be more involved. Woods, who is also the chief executive of Macau-based Jet Asia, says the association has 50 members, although a few have dropped out in the past 12 months as the economic crisis bit. He says it has also been difficult to fund a full-time administrator, although Woods adds that the AsBAA's website, which has been down for a while, will be shortly revived with a "more interactive look".
He adds that the association has been successful in demonstrating the value of corporate jets to regional economic growth. It will continue to promote increased education about the industry, moving away from the direct lobbying model that the NBAA employs in the USA.
"Direct lobbying approaches as they are utilised in the USA would conflict culturally with the Asian concept of 'guanxi' or 'relationships', which require more time to build," he says.
