China to top world's 2nd biggest aviation market
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-07-16 09:44

China will become the world's largest aviation market second to the United States by 2022, said Adam Brown, Airbus Vice President of Customer Affairs Division during his recent visit to China.

During the next 20 years, he said, the airlines of the Chinese mainland will need to acquire no less than US$140-billion-worth 1,316 mainline passenger jets, or aircraft with at least 100 seats, so as to accommodate growing travel demand and to renew their fleets.

This puts China in second place only behind the United States in the world's aviation market, he said. It also means that one in twelve of all jetliners produced during the next 20 years will be used by airlines of the Chinese mainland.

More than 150 A320 aircraft are already in service with Air China, China Eastern, China Southern and Sichuan Airlines, and a further 79 are on order, including eight A319s for a new customer, Hainan Airlines, he said.

Brown also predicted that 332 planes needed by China during the next 20 years will be larger twin-aisle types with 300 to 400 seats. Starting as early as 2008, Airbus envisages that the Chinese airlines will be operating as many as 105 of these very large aircraft with more than 63,000 seats by 2022, he said.

Airbus also believes that Chinese airlines will need A380 freighters. This new type of plane will enter service in 2008. Both FedEx and Emirates Airlines have already announced plans to operate their A380 freighters to China, and they are likely to be joined by other overseas cargo carriers as they are granted traffic rights, he said.

He said, Airbus predicts that the airlines of the Chinese mainland will be among the world's largest users of A380-type aircraft in the long run.

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