More plane showrooms to be opened in China

A visitor checks a helicopter on sale at a private aircraft store in Beijing on Saturday. [Xinhua]

The booming airplane market follows the government's November 2010 decision to gradually open its low-altitude airspace, under 1,000 meters, to promote the general aviation sector.

General aviation requires less land than other transportation methods, and the opening of additional of low-altitude airspace will give the sector a boost in the future, said Chen Zhuo, an industrial analyst from China Merchants Securities Co.

"The development of general aviation lags far behind the commercial airline sector, where China owns the world's second-largest aircraft fleet by size," Chen said.

China's general aviation market will reach 150 billion yuan by 2020, the National Business Daily reported, citing a prediction by the Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

There were 2,127 aircraft registered for general aviation at the end of the year, up 8.9 percent from the previous year, but much slower than the 18 percent growth rate in 2014, according to data from CARNOC.com, one of China's largest civil aviation web portals.

Li Lei, an analyst at Minzu Securities Co, said boosting China's general aviation sector will require support at the policy and regulatory level, and infrastructure construction.

Sun is positive about the outlook for China's general aviation, and said the company will open more physical stores in the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Fujian.

"Just like the development of China's private car fleet over the past decades, the market for private jets in China will take off eventually," he said.