New Company To Be Launched In March

Reports last week that China intended to merge its two aviation companies into a common entity, to be tasked with producing a large commercial airliner, gained added weight this week with the announcement China plans to launch the new company in March.

A senior official of China's Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense made the announcement Tuesday, reports Shanghai Daily. Unidentified industry sources told the paper Shanghai is among the top contenders to host research and development facilities for the as-yet-unnamed aircraft.

As ANN reported, an executive at China Aviation Industry Corp II said the nation's two state-owned aviation units, commonly called AVIC I and AVIC II, would be restructured to improve global competitiveness. (Oddly, when AVIC was originally split into units I and II in July of 1999, that move also was attributed to a need to be more competitive.)

Word now is that the two entities will form a joint venture between their commercial units to build the new airliner -- which would sport at least 150 seats and, presumably, be comparable in size to the Airbus A320 or Boeing 737-800.

AVIC I is currently tasked with building the upcoming ARJ-21 regional airliner. The jet is slated to make its first flight in March.

FMI: www.avic1.com.cn/English/EnglishIndex.asp