(Reuters) - Flanked by an entourage of assistants and advisors, Chinese mining tycoon Lian Guangming flitted from one luxury jet to another at the Asian Aerospace Expo in Hong Kong.

"Not bad," said Lian, from Inner Mongolia as he emerged from the plush, leather and wood panelled interior of a $55 million Bombardier Lear Jet 60XR earlier this week.

"If I like something, I’ll buy it."

With the aviation industry now booming in the world’s second largest economy, China’s passengers are expected to account for around a quarter of the world’s 800 million new travellers by 2014. Dozens of new airports under construction, and the executive jet market is expected to ride the crest of this wave.

Forbes’ latest global rich list showed the number of Chinese billionaires doubling over the past year to 115, the first time any country outside the United States, which has 413 billionaires, had more than 100.

But China has only around 200 private aircraft, according to official estimates, far fewer than the 11,000 in the United States.

U.S. executives, including those at government-owned General Motors Co GM.UL, are now getting back on corporate planes as the economy slowly recovers after the financial crisis.

Billionaire Warren Buffett’s NetJets Inc has recently placed order up to 120 jets from Bombardier Inc (BBDb.TO) in a deal that could worth more than $6.7 billion.

Embraer Executive Jets forecasts a global market of more than 10,000 business jets, worth $210 billion in the next 10 years, with China expected to take the lion’s share.

"It’s very hard to know who will buy the next jet. They just pop out," said Daniel Amtmann, director of business development in China for Cessna Aircraft, on the new wave of Chinese buyers.

"It’s a concept market," he added, referring to one with changing trends and styles.

Many of the world’s leading executive jet makers -- Textron Inc’s (TXT.N) Cessna unit, General Dynamics Corp’s (GD.N) Gulfstream, Embraer, Bombardier (BBDb.TO) and Hawker Beechcraft HAWBE.UL -- flew their planes into Hong Kong for this week’s expo with salespeople, including Mandarin-speaking Westerners, especially targeting Chinese buyers.

"We’re all here," said Lian, the tycoon with mining, finance, property and aviation interests, clad in black designer clothes, who was shopping for two jets for his aviation company.

"Some of us are ready to buy planes, some others are still searching and researching. But I can say that the spring of (private) flights in China has arrived," he told Reuters.

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