Global EditionASIA 中文双语Français
Business
Home / Business / Industries

Aviation industry growth driven by China

By Angus McNeice | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2018-07-19 01:01
Share
Share - WeChat
Passengers alight a plane of Spring Airlines after it lands in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning province, in 2016. [Photo/VCG]

Chinese aviation companies cut major deals at the Farnborough International Airshow in the United Kingdom this week, as news broke that the Chinese air travel market is on course to become the biggest in the world.

China will usurp the United States as the single largest aviation market in 10 to 15 years, according to a global industry report that US-based aircraft manufacturer Boeing released on Tuesday, the second day in the week-long trading event.

The plane-maker said that global airlines will need an additional 42,700 planes over the next 20 years, a 3 percent increase on the 2017 forecast. This demand will largely be driven by China, where Boeing sold one out of every four of its passenger aircraft last year.

The report predicts that 40 percent of planes sold in the next 20 years will go to the Asia-Pacific region.

A record 20 Chinese aviation companies are in attendance at this year’s Farnborough International Airshow, which is one of the most important trade events on the industry calendar.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May said this year’s air show is taking place at an “incredibly exciting time for aerospace”.

“Not only is there huge growth potential, but many of the developments taking place have the potential to transform the way we fly,” May said during the opening ceremony on Monday.

On Tuesday, Chinese conglomerate HNA Group signed a letter of intent to purchase 20 ARJ21 aircrafts from Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, also known as Comac.

After delivery, the jets will be operated by Urumqi Air, an HNA Group subsidiary. The ARJ21 is China's first domestically manufactured regional passenger jet.

The Aviation Industry Corporation of China, also known as AVIC, announced on Monday the establishment of AVIC Cabin Systems, also called ACS. The new company will have its headquarters in London and will produce segments of cabin interiors for customers including Boeing and Airbus.

Liu Xiaoming, China’s ambassador to the UK, said the announcement, along with the recent news the UK and China will up flight allowances between both nations by 50 percent to 150 per week, means bilateral cooperation on aviation is “moving to a new level”.

"It is amid such an exciting development that AVIC Cabin Systems is born,” Liu said. “This meets the need of upgrading China-UK 'air corridor'. It is a vivid example of the thriving cooperation between our two countries on aviation.”

On Tuesday, British pilot training company L3 Commercial Aviation announced a contract with Qingdao Airlines to provide two flight simulators and two flight panel trainers to a training center in Longkou, China.

L3 Commercial Aviation also announced a contract with China Southern Airlines to provide four full flight simulators for a training center in Zhuhai, China.

Boeing has announced two of the biggest deals so far at this year’s air show. Logistics company DHL ordered 14 Boeing 777 freighters for $4.7 billion, and the United States Department of Defense confirmed on Tuesday that Boeing won a $3.9 billion contract to build two 747-8 aircraft for the Air Force One fleet used by the US president.

More than 530 aircraft were ordered on Tuesday, bringing the total value of aircraft and engine service agreements at the airshow so far to $98 billion.

Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
CLOSE