NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sales of business jets are on track to hit an all-time record this year, reflecting an explosion of wealth -- mostly outside the United States -- and the growing desire of CEOs and the ultra-rich to avoid the hassles of regular flying.

Soaring fuel prices and the credit crisis are dampening growth in the U.S. market, but the three-year boom in global jet sales -- which has boosted companies like General Dynamics Corp’s Gulfstream and Textron Inc’s Cessna -- is not expected to fade.

“This is about the enormous wealth that’s being created in other parts of the world and their appetite for business aircraft,” said Jay Mesinger, a jet broker who founded Boulder, Colorado-based J. Mesinger Corporate Jet Sales Inc in 1982.

Customers across the world took delivery of 297 business jets in the first quarter of this year, up 41 percent from 211 in the same period last year, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), the industry’s trade group.

With order books full, that puts manufacturers on track to make 1,200 deliveries this year, which would exceed last year’s all-time record of 1,138. That would be the third year in a row that the industry has set a record for deliveries.

For comparison, in 2003 -- when aftershocks of the September 11, 2001 attacks were suppressing demand -- only 518 business jets were delivered.

The twin threats of high fuel and an economic downturn -- which are forcing most airlines to shrink operations -- have not yet made a dent in the private jet market.

“So far it is immune -- it appears to be a Wal-Mart downturn, not a Neiman Marcus downturn,” said Richard Aboulafia at the Teal Group, an aerospace and defense consulting group.

ORDERS FLYING HIGH

Orders, which give a better indication of the future, are also bumping along at record levels, helped by Europe -- especially Russia -- and the Middle East, flush with oil revenues.

Honeywell International Inc, a leading maker of jet electronics, forecast a record 1,300 or more orders this year, in its annual business jet survey published last September. UBS analyst David Strauss estimates 1,250 orders.

Judging by recent orders, the industry should hit that.

Last week, Gulfstream signed one of the industry’s biggest ever deals, worth $1.9 billion, with NetJets Inc, the plane-sharing firm owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

The order, for 40 new planes overall, calls for eight of Gulfstream’s larger jets to be delivered each year from 2012 through 2016.

NetJets is currently taking eight jets a year from Gulfstream under its last big order, placed in 2006, indicating that NetJets is not anticipating any slowdown in demand for its jet-sharing service, known as “fractional ownership”.

Despite broader economic worries, Gulfstream felt confident enough to launch its new G650 in March, the biggest, fastest and most expensive business jet, priced at just under $60 million each.

The company won’t say how many firm orders it has booked, but General Dynamics Chief Executive Nicholas Chabraja said interest in the jet has been “overwhelming”.

Also last week, Canada’s Bombardier Inc took an order for as many as 110 of its Learjet aircraft from an unnamed European buyer, which could be worth up to $1.5 billion.

International producers like France’s Dassault and Brazil’s Embraer are also racking up brisk orders. Even Boeing Co and EADS unit Airbus are getting in on the action, selling personalized versions of their jetliners to the ultra-rich, from about $50 million for a single-aisle plane to the $300 million or so Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is paying for his Airbus A380 superjumbo.

INTERNATIONAL BOOM

U.S. purchases are increasing slightly, but the real growth is international. According to GAMA, 58 percent of deliveries last year were to North American customers, 25 percent to Europe, 8 percent to Latin America, 5 percent to Africa and the Middle East and 4 percent to Asia.

That represents a sudden shift away from North America, which represented around 75 percent of deliveries for the 20 years up to 2005, GAMA said.

Russia, with an explosion of wealth and lack of good airline connections, is a particularly strong market. “There are more billionaires in Moscow than in New York,” said Robert Baugniet, a spokesman for Gulfstream.

The jet-maker does not break down its sales by country, but Baugniet said more than half of Gulfstream’s first-quarter orders came from outside North America, compared to about 25 percent five years ago.

Although orders are still growing, the outlook for the United States is not so robust. Economists are expecting U.S. gross domestic product growth of only 1 percent for this year and 2.1 percent next year, according to a Reuters poll, as fuel costs and credit problems mount.

“The higher cost of fuel and the fewer dollars available for financing has made the United States a tougher market,” said Mesinger, who estimates that the price of used jets has fallen 10 percent to 12 percent from the end of last year.

But overall, industry experts doubt that is enough to seriously dent the global market.

“If airline ticket prices go up 20 percent (to offset fuel costs), you lose a lot of traffic,” said Aboulafia. “If business jet operating costs go up 20 percent, you hardly lose anything.”