Pilots Blog

What is the market for the Light Jet?

"The light jets are going to do (to civil aviation) what the low-cost airlines did to the passenger market" says Kapil Kaul, head of CAPA in India. Yesterday,  I was with Capt Karan Singh (head of Business Aviation Association for India) and he is much in agreement and cites Mumbai based Invision's purchase of 20 Phenom 100s as proof that India is the right market for the light jet. It'll take time, he says, but India is ready for this class of aircraft.

Contrast this with Ali Al Naqbi's (head of MEBA) view that light jets have some work to do to in the Middle East and you can see that opinions vary. I was with Ali last week in Abu Dhabi and he pointed to all the jets flying into Al Bateen for the F1 Grand Prix - not a light jet to be seen, it was all mid size and heavy metal.

So there you have it - the light jet is good for India, not so good for the Middle East. However, they are entirely different markets, both in terms of geography and population. The Middle East has infrastructure galore, India has very little. India has a large landmass and a population of 1.2 billion, the GCC has a large landmass, but a population of 55 million. India has rubbish connections, the Middle East has excellent connections.... and so the comparisons go on. Will the light jet succeed? In my opinion, Yes. Will it succeed as an air taxi? Who knows. I suspect, though, it will take a market like India to really put the light jet through it's paces and as it's one of the few growth markets during the current financial gloom, OEM's will be watching carefully.