Texas billionaire Robert Bass was at the Paris Air Show this week to promote his latest endeavor known as Aerion — the world’s first supersonic private business jet — to aircraft manufacturers and potential customers.
With so much exuberance these days in the private aircraft market, it’s little wonder that even with a minimum price of $80 million, Bass said his jet idea drew keen interest.
Once relegated to being a largely U.S. niche products, business jets have become the fastest-growing segment of the global aerospace industry. As the orders increase, the limits of what is conceivable in private air travel keep being stretched, one news source wrote.
Just this week, Airbus confirmed it had booked an order from an individual for its A380 super-jumbo. The $300 million plane seats 525 people. While Airbus didn’t name the buyer, it did say the plane would be converted "for personal use for him and his entourage.”
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In fact, stated one news source, the people who attend the Paris Air Show that’s held on the tarmac at Le Bourget Airport "are people who are willing to pay any price. The top end of society is also the fastest-growing segment of society.”
Take Falcon’s new 7X — the gleaming $41 million, eight-seat jet is the newest entrant in the "super large” category, following Gulfstream’s G500 and Bombardier’s Global series.
Sources stated that Dassault Falcon has already booked more than 160 orders for the plane. Its first delivery in the U.S. is to Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis.
One research group estimates that manufacturers like Falcon will produce 999 business jets worth $16.4 billion this year. That’s almost double their output of 504 in 2003, when sales bottomed out after the last big growth spurt in the late 1990’s was stopped by the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
During the next decade, the research firm estimates manufacturers will turn out 12,000 business jets worth a cumulative $173.2 billion.
Not only is the business jet market booming, but it’s also expanding geographically. The U.S. used to be the dominant market for these jets. But now, Falcon only generates 30 percent of his sales in the U.S, and Rosanvallon will deliver 10 planes to Russia.
The last untapped potential market is China which, stated sources, has its air space restricted by the military.
Bass reportedly has said he believed there’s a market for 300 supersonic jets in the next 10 years. His goal is to find a manufacturer to share the risk
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