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PUBLISHER’S NOTE
For this issue of Asian Sky Quarterly I had the pleasure of interviewing my old
friend and colleague Chang Qiu Sheng.
It was all ground breaking stuff, never been done before, and required great faith
in the business potential and in the people that brought it to the table.
I’ve known Chang for pretty much the whole 20 years I’ve been working the
China market. Eventually I worked for him at BAA, but probably the most
memorable event for the two of us was the delivery of the first Gulfstream
in China. At that time I was Gulfstream’s VP in Asia and Chang was the
newly appointed head of the equally newly created Air China Business Jet. It
was October 2003 at NBAA and Air China took delivery of a GIV S/N 1144,
registration number B-3999 on a one year lease with a purchase option for a
new Gulfstream.
The huge significance of the event was probably a bit lost on us at the time.
For us, it was just the conclusion of a long process of relationship building and
equally long negotiations including a memorable session at the Boao Forum
in Hainan in 2002, where we finally got it done. It was a ‘first’ on many levels.
The most significant being the first business jet operated by Air China Business
Jet and the first large cabin Gulfstream in China. This was the start for “Wan
Liu” just over 13 years ago to where today Gulfstream is the leading brand in
Mainland China, with a third of the market and over 100 business jets in
the country.
Those were interesting times almost 15 years ago, reemphasising just how
young business aviation is in China and yet how far it has come in this time too.
Also featured in this issue are equally interesting interviews with ASG’s new
Sales Director for Africa: Lynton Van Aswegen; Paul Jebely, the new Managing
Director in Hong Kong for Pillsbury Winthrop; and Wooksang Cho, CEO &
President of Avjet Asia in Seoul.
As to our regular scheduled features, the country profile this time is South
Korea and the aircraft spotlight is on Bombardier’s Global XRS / 6000 family.
Also included are our usual macro-economic country overviews, “Mood &
Intentions” market survey results and comprehensive Asia-Pacific market
dynamics analysis.
Many parties were involved in making it happen in addition to Chang and me:
David Chou, President of PCAT in Beijing who was the bridge between Chang
and myself; Bryan Moss, President of Gulfstream at the time, who was a firm
believer in the immense potential of the Chinese market even back then and
who subsequently agreed to take the risk and sell the deal internally; and Eric
Hinson, SVP of Gulfstream Financial Services Corp., who found a way to pull a
lease together for a wholly owned subsidiary of CNAC – Air China Business Jet.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey C. Lowe
Managing Director, Asian Sky Group
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR CONTRIBUTORS:
FIRST QUARTER 2017 — ASIAN SKY QUARTERLY | 1