Please, No More Shows— And Not in China, Not Yet, Says Hawker GM Hatt
Too many air shows— it's a very common theme, but is the
business aviation community reaching breaking point? At Hawker, president and
general manager Brad Hatt is readying his company to go from NBAA to Dubai to
Langkawi to Singapore, all by
February.
The next two events are only days away.
But, says Hatt, "Enough's enough. Now they are talking about
splitting off [from Singapore's Asian Aerospace] a whole new show in China.
Well, we have big issues with that. Singapore and Malaysia all draw customers
for us— they are important for Hawker; they are important for Raytheon.
"In China we have as many aircraft as anyone else, 10
Hawkers, but that's in a country of one billion people. Everyone keeps talking
about the growth prospects, but it's just not there yet. Not when 80% of the
airspace is controlled by the military and there are only about 140 accessible
airports.
"Don't get me wrong, the Chinese authorities have done an
excellent job in managing what growth there has been— but for us, the market
just isn't there yet."
