IBS

TO HAVE an important job in Asia is to spend too much time in the air. The economic health of Hong Kong and Singapore is tied so strongly to the quality of their airports and their positions as transport hubs that both could justifiably use a rolling suitcase as their city logos. All this traffic has been handled by commercial airlines, which have been growing fast. In China alone, air traffic is expanding by 40% a year, according to Wang Changshun, the country's vice-minister for civil aviation, who was speaking on September 3rd at the Asian Aerospace Congress, a big industry conference taking place in Hong Kong. Things are picking up even in countries, such as Vietnam, that were aviation backwaters only a decade ago. Boeing and Airbus foresee total sales of 5,500-7,200 airliners in Asia in the next 20 years.

But left out from this Asian bonanza have been the makers of business aircraft—the $10m-55m machines that seat up to a dozen people and are the signature toys of American executives. That now appears to be changing, however, and like many business shifts in Asia it may be changing with extraordinary speed. Just as Mr Wang was offering his predictions, deals were unfolding not far away in a corner of Hong Kong's airport where a new hangar, the airport's second, opened for private jets.

Hong Kong's first private-jet hangar opened in 1998 to no demand. Five years ago there were only two planes in residence. Now there are 15, talks about more and plans for a third hangar. Just outside the new hangar's huge door, bosses from Dassault Falcon, Bombardier and Hawker Beechcraft were parked in the comfortable executive offices of their choicest planes as they received clients. When a Hawker was temporarily left empty with its door open, the wife of one of the region's billionaires stole up the ramp and posed in the aisle as her assistant snapped a picture—an auspicious sign for sales.

Boeing was there too, though it could not be bothered to send a display model. In May it announced the sale of a privately configured 787 Dreamliner, its newest plane ($153m without an interior). Unusually in the secretive world of private jets, the buyer is known: Joseph Lau, a property tycoon with interests in Macau, Hong Kong and China. One possible explanation for the announcement is that Mr Lau is thought to have plans for a business providing jets to Asian clients who, in the order of things, want to stay private.

Yet the creation of an Asian market for private jets faces many obstacles. America has 550 airports that can handle big commercial airliners, and perhaps 10,000 that can handle smaller planes. China, in contrast, has 126 airports, only 57 of which can handle private planes. Getting hold of landing slots is difficult. India is a bureaucratic nightmare. Japan requires two weeks' notice, which may be why Japanese firms love to use private planes, but only outside Japan: Toyota's corporate-aviation operation is based in California. There are cultural barriers, too. Manufacturers say that in the past Asian buyers have been sensitive about buying something as costly as a plane.

But the region's huge prosperity means things are changing. Landing slots, once impossible to get in China, can now apparently be had in a day. Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong are all happy to accommodate business jets, with South Korea providing a helpful way round the restrictions on direct flights between Taiwan and mainland China. Charter operators have begun to emerge in Macau, Shanghai and Beijing, among other places. And now that a few tycoons have planes, others want them. Indeed, it appears that the biggest problem today is supply, not demand. Dassault and Bombardier are taking orders for two to three years out, and Boeing says the soonest a new plane can be delivered is 2012.