Tianjin Plant Will Supply Planes
Just when you think they're down... Airbus manages to come back
in a big way. Earlier speculation that Airbus would receive a big
order during French president Jacques Chirac's visit to China was
confirmed Thursday... and, as is often the case with Airbus, the
numbers are even bigger than originally rumored.
Airbus announced the signing of a 150-frame order for
A320-family narrowbody planes from China Aviation Supplies Import
and Export Group Corporation (CASGC), the primary aircraft
purchaser for the government of China. In a separate agreement,
CASGC also signed a letter of intent for 20 A350XWB planes -- a
plane which Airbus has not yet formally committed to build.
In any case, the two orders represent the largest single
transaction ever performed by Airbus in China... beating last December's
megadeal by 20 frames. (And yes, before you ask...
this IS a new order, on top of that deal.)
"These commitments are new milestone achievements in the history
of the close cooperation between our two companies," said CASGC
President Li Hai at the signing ceremony in Beijing. "We are
pleased to develop our cooperation with more A320 Family aircraft
and we are happy to introduce the Airbus A350XWB Family aircraft,
which represents the 21st Century solution for an aircraft in this
size category, into China. We believe that more Chinese airlines
will select this new generation aircraft for daily operation in the
future."
As part of the A320 deal, Airbus also confirmed its intent to
build an A320 production facility in China. The factory, located in
Tianjin, is expected to deliver its first plane in 2009. The
majority -- if not all -- of the Chinese-built aircraft will serve
Chinese airlines.
"We are impressed by the fast and sustained growth of the
Chinese civil aviation industry and are extremely proud to be able
to contribute to its development with our products," said Airbus
CEO Louis Gallois. "The fact that more and more Chinese airlines
are turning to Airbus aircraft for their daily operations is a
clear demonstration that we have the right products to be part of
it. We look forward to further expanding our cooperation with CASGC
and the Chinese airlines."
Airbus is the first airplane manufacturer to locate a plant in
China since McDonnell Douglas operated a plant there for close to
20 years, before ultimately folding up shop in the mid-90s. The
facility produced variants of the DC-9... a plane whose legacy
continues to live on today, in the upcoming China-built ARJ-21 regional
plane.
The latest A320 order brings Airbus' order book for 2006 to
approximately 500 frames -- well over double what Airbus had
reported by June this year, although still over 200 planes short of
Boeing's order book to date. But there's still a lot of time left
before the year is out... and as Airbus as shown
before, the European planemaker loves come-from-behind
victories.
Conversely... in the past, China has opted to spread
the wealth between Airbus and its American rival, Boeing in its
large plane orders, so as not to offend either planemaker. Could we
soon see an equally-large order for Boeing planes, as well?
Stay tuned... this ain't over yet.
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