Airbus moves closer to its aim: 50% of China market

Airbus Monday clinched the largest single order in China when it won the right to supply 150 A320 jets, worth nearly US$10 billion, to six Chinese airlines.

The deal is one of the biggest purchases in China's civil aviation history and follows an order for 70 B737 Boeing jets, signed last month during US President George W. Bush's visit to Beijing.

"Today's agreement is no doubt the best way to celebrate our 20-year-long close co-operation with China," Gustav Humbert, Airbus' president and chief executive officer, said at the signing ceremony.

The order was signed in Paris in the presence of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin.

Airbus said the aircraft will be delivered to Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Sichuan Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines and Hainan Airlines. But the plane maker declined to say when the aircraft will be delivered.

The A320 family, comprising A319s, A320s and A321s, are medium-range, single-aisle, twin-engine jets capable of carrying up to about 180 passengers.

The aircraft have been the European company's most popular models since they entered service in 1988. Airbus had received in total more than 5,700 orders globally, about two-thirds of which have been for A320s by the end of November.

"The demand for this modern and cost-saving aircraft family from Chinese airlines has been rapidly increasing in recent years," said Li Hai, president of China Aviation Supplies Import and Export Group.

Since the first A320 entered China in 1995, 216 A320 aircraft have been put into service, accounting for two thirds of the Airbus fleet in the country.

Airbus Deutschland GmbH is responsible for final assembly of the A320 aircraft.

China is likely to become the first country outside Europe to build an Airbus aircraft, according to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) Airbus signed with China on Sunday at the plane maker's headquarters in Toulouse, France.

The MOU, aimed at extending industrial co-operation between Airbus and China, will study the possibility of setting up an assembling line for single-aisle aircraft in China.

China's air travel is growing by double digits annually. The nation has been the world's fastest-growing aviation market and is a major battleground for the world's two aerospace giants - Boeing and Airbus.

Boeing dominates the Chinese market; Airbus holds 29 per cent, but it aims for at least 50 per cent before 2013.

Chinese airlines are busy expanding their fleets to cope with growing passenger traffic.

China's airports last year handled 240 million passengers, up 38.8 per cent year-on-year, and 5.5 million tons of cargo, up 22.3 per cent over the previous year, according to statistics from the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China.

Source: China Daily