France's Dassault Falcon Jet Corp is working closely with the Chinese authorities to get approval for its Falcon 50, 2000 and 900 aircraft families to operate in China.

"The French will send a delegation next month, or in October, to discuss this plan with their Chinese counterparts," said Jean Rosanvallon, president and chief executive officer of Dassault.

The company is expected to obtain airworthiness certificates from the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China early next month or by the end of this year, Rosanvallon said in an interview with China Daily yesterday.

He said with China becoming more integrated into the global marketplace, and government regulations easing over the use of business jets, all indicators suggest the possibility of rapid growth for business aviation and for Dassault in China.

"We have positioned ourselves well to be the leading manufacturer of large cabin business jets here in the future," Rosanvallon said.

Dassault plans to capture about 50 per cent of China's large business jet market within 10 years.

It expects China will have an additional 300 business jets of various kinds by 2015, including 100 large cabin ones.

At present, the country has 42 aircraft in its business jet fleet, most of which are used for training and special missions. Only 13 are available to the business community, said Jason Liao, president of the Asian Business Aviation Association.

And only two of the 13 business jets are owned by private firms, with the other 11 operated by airlines.

"The figure is too small compared with more than 700 jets in Brazil," Liao said at the first Asian Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition, which will close in Shanghai today.

He said China should overcome four major difficulties in developing business jets. It needs to loosen control over air traffic, build more small airports for business jets, reduce flying costs, and lower tariffs to allow more business jets to be imported.

Industry insiders said China's business jet market has big potential, with expected annual sales of 60 billion yuan (US$7.4 billion) by 2015.

Rosanvallon said Dassault will focus on the large cabin jet market at a price ranging from US$20 million to US$40 million in China. A Falcon 50EX is expected to cost US$21 million, while a Falcon 900EX is priced at US$36 million.

"We are confident of what we are doing in China, although we are a latecomer," he said.

"Business aviation in China is still relatively young so Dassault is working hard to make its aircraft better known with the government and in the private sector."

He said part of his firm's sales drive will include the addition of a sales manager who will exclusively handle China.

Rosanvallon said this was part of Dassault's global strategy that aims to increase its worldwide jets from a current 1,600 Falcon aircraft in 65 countries and regions to 3,000 within 10 years.

(China Daily August 11, 2005)