New heights for private aircraft (2)

Who buys them?

The rapid growth in China is due to a series of factors, one of them the growing population of super rich in the nation, said Tammy Qiu, Cessna's Asia Pacific marketing director.

Though the prices for business craft vary widely - the Airbus CJ 319 is priced at $96 million and the Cessna Citation Mustang sells at about 20 million yuan ($3.21 million) - industry insiders say target customers should have minimum assets of 100 million yuan.

There are at least 63,500 individuals in China who meet the requirement and 13 percent of them intend to purchase a business craft, according to the Hurun Chinese Luxury Consumer White Paper 2012.

Candy Zhao, marketing director of the China Business Aviation Group, said over 80 percent of the companies' clients are private business owners, with most of the other 20 percent showbiz celebrities.

The majority buy aircraft for business reasons, Zhao added.

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