Airbus in China

Airbus China opened its Beijing office in 1990 and now employs around 260 people, four out of five of whom are Chinese nationals, as well as a string of local customer support offices to provide ready assistance to airlines.

Airbus Beijing training centre was set up jointly with the China Aviation Supplies Import & Export Corporation in 1998 and is the most modern such facility in the country, with two full simulators: one for the A320 Family and one for the A330/A340 Family. The centre has trained thousands of maintenance engineers, cabin crew and pilots, about a third of which come from outside China.

Nearby is the Airbus customer support centre, which stocks some 25,000 spare parts available for dispatch to airlines in the Asia-Pacific region and is the first organisation in China to earn EN9100 approval. In addition more than 20 European and American vendors supporting Airbus customers operate out of the centre, which also has a dedicated avionics repair workshop.

More than 260 Airbus aircraft are already in operation with airlines in China, Hong Kong and Macau. China Southern Airlines has ordered five A380s, and the potential for further Airbus growth in the region is huge. Within the next twenty years, China is expected to become the second biggest aviation market in the world. By 2020 some 100 million Chinese tourists will be travelling internationally. Chinese airlines therefore expect to be transporting at least four times their current levels of passengers, creating a growing demand for aircraft. Having gained just over 50% market share in China in recent years, Airbus intends to continue to capture at least half of all new orders from China in the future.

Shanghai-based CAAC, now China Eastern Airlines, became the first airline in the country to realise benefits of operating Airbus aircraft in 1985 and is now Airbus’ biggest customer in China with a fleet of 93 aircraft.

In addition, Guangzhou based China Southern Airlines operates 43 aircraft, the national flag carrier, Air China, operates 26 and Chengdu based Sichuan Airlines has a fleet of 15.

Airbus not only values its relationship with airlines in China, it also appreciates the enormous potential offered by Chinese industry.

In fact, over half the Airbus fleet in service worldwide has parts produced by Chinese companies with whom Airbus already enjoys strong relations:

The Chengdu Aircraft Corporation supplies the rear passenger door and parts of its nose section for the A320.

The Shenyang Aircraft Corporation produces and assembles the emergency exit doors and manufactures fixed leading edges, wing interspar ribs, cargo doors and skin plates, also for the A320 Family. The Xi’an Aircraft Company produces electronic bay doors for the A320 and A330/A340 Families, as well the fixed trailing edges on wings for the A320 Family and the brake blades and medium air ducts for the A330/A340 Family.

The Hong Yuan Aviation Forging & Casting (HYFC) produces titanium forging parts to mount powerplants on to wings. The Guizhou Aviation Industrial Group produces maintenance jigs and tools for Airbus aircraft.

Airbus also seeks to form new industrial partnerships whenever possible. For example, the A318 is the first new Airbus aircraft to have been developed with the help of a team of Chinese engineers and the specially commissioned roll-on, roll-off ship that transports A380 components was built at the Jinling shipyard. In addition, Airbus has several major technology transfer programmes underway, including one that will enable the complete wing of the A320 Family to be manufactured in China and another that will see up to 200 Chinese engineers employed at an Airbus engineering centre in the region by 2008. The success of such projects means that as Airbus increases production, it can continue to expand in the region and by 2010 the company expects to be spending around $120 million of its procurement budget in China.

Visit our dedicated website : http://www.airbuschina.com.cn






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