Airbus targets 50% of China market
BEIJING: European consortium Airbus Industrie is targeting to take at least a 50% share of the China market, by seizing on the country's need of some 1,600 large aircraft in the coming 20 years, Airbus China president Guy McLeod said.
McLeod said in a statement that China was a strategic marketplace for Airbus, as the country was expected to become the world's second largest aviation market after the United States.
Airbus' business in China has been expanding steadily since its entry in 1985, with 199 of its aircraft currently in service in the Greater China area, Hong Kong and Macau, according to Airbus China's press and information manager Gu Ming.
Gu said Airbus now accounted for a 28% share of the market in the area, while Boeing, the only foreign aircraft company in the country before Airbus' entry, held a 67% share.In return, Airbus had been subcontracting aircraft component projects to Chinese companies since 1985, with the current total value of contracts exceeding US$500mil, Gu said.
Airbus awarded around US$12mil worth of contacts to local firms last year and planned to increase the annual amount to US$60mil by 2007, equivalent to Boeing's current level, he added.
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