A looming global recession cannot be cheerful news if you are trying to sell to the aviation industry. ‘Build them and they will come’ may no longer be a viable strategy…

I wonder if bus tours were part of the original plan. From the AmCham website:

September 12, 2008 – Members from the Aerospace Defense Committee boarded a coach bus to learn more about Seletar Aero+sPace. The driving tour of the air base was led by our tour guides Celine Yeo, Marketing Manager of JTC Corporation and Chan Ying Xuan, Assistant Head, Transport Engineering for the Economic Development Board (EDB). On the driving tour the committee learned about the details of the new aerospace park being developed at Seletar. Ms. Yeo explained how JTC will carry out master-planning and infrastructure improvements for Seletar Aero+sPace, in consultation with other government agencies. The committee also learned of plans to transform Seletar into a site that will support aerospace Maintenance Repair Overhaul (MRO), design and manufacturing of aircraft systems and components, business and general aviation activities and an aviation campus for the training of pilots, aviation professionals and technical personnel.

Rumblings over Seletar hub’s goals as reported at the Singapore AirFreight Directory on 28th September 2008.

But serious questions have recently arisen about whether the initial objectives of developing a business aviation hub may have shifted, albeit slightly. More critically, doubts have arisen – at least in the minds of many incumbent operators at Seletar – about whether officials responsible for the project understand business aviation. There have been rumblings within the Seletar aviation community about poor communications and consultations by officials.