China Southern, Air China to buy China-made aircraft -Shanghai International Maritime Information and Literature website

China Southern, Air China to buy China-made aircraft
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PostTime:2010-02-08 07:49:14.0 View:32
CHINA Southern Airlines and Air China have voiced support for a domestic aircraft manufacturer, a move that will raise the competition stakes for the Boeing Company and Airbus when seeking to win orders from the world's fastest growing aviation market. "We are a state-owned company, of course, we support the C919," China's first narrow-body plane that is manufactured by Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac). "If the government needs us to buy, we will," China Southern's executive vice president Dong Suguang was quoted as saying in a Bloomberg TV interview at the Singapore Air Show. China Southern and Air China, the operators of at least 550 Boeing and Airbus aircraft, may add Chinese planes as the nation tries to develop a globally competitive aerospace industry, said Bloomberg. Airbus forecasts China will account for about one third of Asia-Pacific aircraft orders over the next 20 years, said the report. "Air China absolutely will support Chinese aircraft manufacturers," the carrier's senior vice president He Li said yet adding that it had not yet decided on how many aircraft it might buy. Comac aims to win 100 orders by year's end, chiefly within the domestic market, for its 168-seat C919, according to Yuan Wenfeng, deputy general manager, programme management. According to Chaker Chahrour, the executive vice president of CFM International, the sole engine supplier for the aircraft, Comac may make up to 150 planes annually, once full production levels have been attained. "If this plane is a success, they have the capacity to produce the same volume as Airbus or Boeing," he said. CFM, a General Electric Co-Safran SA venture, will likely open a final assembly plant in China to support the C919, he said. This comes amid plans for Air China, the world's largest carrier by market value, to retire about 10 planes this year and introduce 30 new ones. Most aircraft leaving the fleet are more than 15 years old.
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