Russian billionaires are Europe's biggest buyers of business jets

25 August 2007

Russia tycoons are the biggest business jet customers in Europe; many even outfit their planes with anti-missile defence systems

Russian corporations may spend up to $2.5 billion on business jets over the next two years, an aviation trade group has said. No wonder companies like Bombardier, Dassault and Embraer are out on a contract-chase in a country that is supposed to have 60 dollar-billionaires.

The Montreal-based Bombardier has a prominent presence at the ongoing MAKS 2007 air show. Bombardier says Russia is its largest European market, and that the company is the top seller of private jets in the country.

A fast-growing sector
Wealthy Russian individuals and corporations have about 300 executive jets, and 100 more are expected to be delivered by the end of 2008. Russians bought executive planes valued at $1.5 billion in the last two years, triple the amount spent in the previous two.

France's Dassault Aviation and Brazil's Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica (Embraer) are the other aerospace companies that dominate the business jet space in Russia. While $1 billion of the $2.5 billion in spending expected by 2009 is already contracted, the remaining $1.5 billion is still up for grabs.

The world's most popular business jet models are Bombardier's Global Express, Boeing's Business Jet, Hawker Beechcraft's Hawker 850XP, the Gulfstream V from General Dynamics, the Legacy 600 made by Embraer and Dassault's Falcon business jet. All except Boeing have brought their planes to display at the air show.

Customers in Russia and other former Soviet republics placed 90 orders with Bombardier in the last three years, for its Learjets, Challenger and Global business jets. In the first half of 2007, the company has already bagged 30 business jet orders from these countries, a company representative said.