FAST cars and luxury jets - both are rolling into town next week.

More than 200 tycoons, royalty and other high-rollers are expected to attend an exclusive private jet show during the F1 weekend.

The two-day affair at Seletar Airport on Friday and Saturday - the actual F1 race is on Sunday - is believed to be the first such event to be held in Singapore.

Seven luxury aircraft, each with a price tag ranging from US$500,000 to US$30 million, will be on display.

The show which will be held here annually is being organised by MillionaireAsia, a media group with an international network that reaches out to about 100,000 millionaires in 10 countries, including Monaco, Russia, India, Hong Kong, Singapore and countries in the Middle East.

At a media preview on Friday, a spokesman for the organising committee Brian Yim said of the decision to hold the event here: 'Singapore is a convenient aviation hub for private jets and, together with China, India and Indonesia, also has one of the world's fastest growth rates of millionaires.'

The move to hold it on the F1 weekend was a deliberate move, he said, adding: 'The F1 wealthy and jet-set crowd is a bonus spillover that will increase further our global database of millionaires.'

Despite a relatively small presence today - just 3 per cent of the world's business jets, or about 400 planes, are based in this region - Asia's business aviation sector will pick up.

In the next decade, Asia will account for 12 per cent of the world's fleet with about 1,600 more planes coming in, Mr Yim said.

The growth will be fuelled by rising affluence and strong growing economies, as well as easing of government restrictions that make it difficult today for private operators to get flying and landing permits, among other barriers.

Private aircraft movements in and out of Singapore, for example, are also expected to increase with the opening of the Integrated Resorts, said the chairman of the Asian Business Aviation Association (AsBAA) Chuck Woods.

He said: 'I guarantee it'.

The development of Seletar Airport and its vicinity into an aerospace hub will also boost Singapore's status as a business aviation centre, he said.

On whether the current global financial crisis is expected to hit the industry hard, Mr Woods said: 'I don't think you can be completely insulated from it.'

Still, the impact if any, will be minimal he said: 'We are clearly focused on the top 1 to 2 per cent of the flying public.'