Air China Says It Will ‘Absolutely’ Support Domestic Planemaker
February 02, 2010, 08:22 PM EST More From Businessweek
By Wendy Leung
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Air China Ltd., the nation’s largest international carrier, said it will “absolutely” support a domestic planemaker seeking to challenge Boeing Co. and Airbus SAS in the world’s fastest-growing aviation market.
The carrier is also planning to operate fewer types of airplanes to pare operating costs, Senior Vice President He Li said in an interview yesterday at the Singapore Air Show. No decisions have been made on how many Chinese aircraft the airline may order, he said.
State-controlled Air China, the operator of more than 200 Boeing and Airbus aircraft, may add Chinese planes as the nation tries to develop a globally competitive aerospace industry. Chinese ambitions threaten to reduce sales opportunities for overseas planemakers in a country that will likely buy 2,800 new planes over the next 20 years, according to Airbus.
Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China, the maker of the nation’s first narrow-body passenger plane, expects total sales of its 168-seat C919 to surpass 2,000 in that timeframe, Yuan Wenfeng, deputy general manager, program management department, said yesterday. The company aims to win around 100 orders by year-end, predominately within the local market, Yuan said.
Air China, the world’s largest carrier by market value, plans to retire about 10 planes this year and introduce 30 new ones, He said. Most of the aircraft leaving the fleet are more than 15 years old, He said, without elaboration.
‘Phase Out’
“The variety of aircraft at Air China is quite high,” He said. “Our strategy is to phase out some models.”
Domestic air travel in China will likely grow more than 10 percent this year because of the nation’s economic growth, He said. International traffic and cargo volume will likely grow at a slower pace on the continuing effects of the global slowdown, he said.
“China’s economy is recovering, but the global economic recovery still has some risks,” He said. “The global financial crisis is not completely over yet.”
