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Airbus plans to work closer with China European aircraft maker Airbus SAS said Tuesday it might let Chinese aviation manufacturers supply up to 5 percent of parts on the proposed A350 jetliner, a day after signing a US$1.33 billion deal with Air China. The Chinese companies would join Airbus in research, development and production of its A350 parts, said Gregor V. Kursell, spokesman of European Aeronautic Defense & Space Co. (EADS), which holds a controlling stake in France-based Airbus. "This will be the aircraft with the largest degree of Chinese participation," Kursell said. China's two leading aircraft makers, known as AVIC 1 and AVIC 2, would help identify and coordinate the award of jobs to Chinese aviation contractors, he said. EADS is expected to make its final decision Friday on the plan to develop the A350 aircraft to compete with Boeing's 7E7 model. As a variant of the existing A330 plane, the A350 has been designed to have a range of about 13,000 km, 1,800 km further than the A330. Kursell's remark came one day after Airbus signed a US$1.33 billion with China's flag carrier Air China for the delivery of 23 A319, A320 and A321 jets. The European side also said it expected to sign a contract with China for the sale of the A380 planes next year. "Pretty soon we'll sit together again and sign the contract," said Rainer Hertrich, co-CEO of EADS, at a news briefing in Beijing late Monday. So far 177 Airbus aircraft were in service on China's mainland, accounting for more than 25 percent of the total fleet, Hertrich said. He stressed that Airbus currently sourced parts in China worth US$15 million to US$20 million, but the number would increase to around US$120 million "in a few years' time." Like its archrival Boeing Co. of the United States, Airbus is sharing more production jobs to help cut development cost on new jet models. The European company said earlier last month it planned to launch an engineering and research center in China next year to focus on new generation aircraft. The center, which was expected to employ 50 Chinese engineers next year and 200 people by the end of 2008, would work on a range of its design and manufacturing requirements, Airbus said. The only other similar Airbus facility outside Europe was created a few years ago in the United States. (Shenzhen Daily-Agencies) |
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