More than 30 aircraft are on display this week at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, with more than 150 exhibitors signed up for this year's Asia Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition.

More than 30 aircraft are on display this week at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, with more than 150 exhibitors signed up for this year's Asia Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition.

Business aviation mainly involves companies and wealthy people who either rent planes for business trips or just buy one to use full time. Here on the mainland, 80 percent of the business air deals come from corporate leasing. The cost of operating a business jet can run as high as 10, 000 US dollars per hour, and the planes themselves can be very expensive.

Chuck Colburn, captain of Boeing Business Jet, said, "The average price, it depends, on how fancy you want the interior to be. Total price will be about 80 million US dollars. With the number of billionaires in China, the market for BBJ is very big."

Exhibitors say in China, the business aviation market is still fresh compared with western countries. There are more than 20 thousand business jets in the United States, while here, there are only around 200. One exhibitor says the problem lies not just with the high costs, but also with the infrastructure in China.

Kong Linshan, president of Minsheng Financial Leasing Co., said, "More infrastructure construction is needed, including the number of airports. And the knowledge of business air is not widespread. Also, it takes time to open the restricted private airspace."

But changes are coming. The Chinese central government's twelfth five year plan calls for the country to conditionally open low altitude flights, and analysts say the business aviation market in China could hit one trillion yuan in five years.

Here in Shanghai, Pudong Airport is building two more runways - the 4th and 5th - partly to meet the growing needs of business aviation by 2014. A Shanghai Airport Authority executive says business and civil aviation will share the improving transport capacity.

Jing Yiming, vice president of Shanghai Airport Authority, said, "There will be a total of five runways at Pudong Airport, and another two at Hongqiao. There is no conflict between civil aviation and business aviation. If we manage them well, we can improve the efficiency of our airports."

Jing says the new runways will also help improve the on-time rate of commercial flights and increase throughput at both of Shanghai's airports. The exhibition runs through Thursday.

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