US aerospace giant Boeing yesterday signed a mega deal worth US$4 billion to supply 70 aircraft to eight Chinese airlines, one of the biggest purchases in China's civil aviation history.
The signing coincided with a three-day visit by US President George W. Bush to Beijing, which ends today. Insiders say the order will help increase Boeing's dominance over European rival Airbus in the world's fastest-growing major aviation market.
 A file photo of the Boeing 737 airliner. China signed a deal Sunday to buy 70 737s from Boeing in a deal worth US$4 billion. [China Daily] |
The aircraft manufacturer will deliver the single-aisle 737-700 and 737-800 models to eight major Chinese airlines between 2006 and 2008, said Boeing China spokesman George Liu.
The signing in Beijing is part of a broader deal to supply 150 737 aircraft, but the aGREement on the other 80 planes will be after 2008 and has not yet been finalized, Liu told China Daily.
The companies to receive the 70 aircraft are Air China, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, Xiamen Airlines, Shandong Airlines, Hainan Airlines and Shenzhen Airlines.
Since China bought the first Boeing B707s in the 1970s, the total number of the US maker's aircraft serving Chinese airlines has reached 534, or two-thirds of China's fleet, said Yang Guoqing, vice-minister of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) at the signing ceremony.
China is expected to become the world's second largest aviation market only after the United States in two decades in terms of the number of passengers and tonnes of cargo flown.
Boeing has forecast that the country's aviation industry will need more than 2,600 new planes quadrupling its current fleet worth US$213 billion over the next 20 years.
The US company claims it holds around 62 per cent of China's aviation market while Airbus is reported to hold a 28-per cent share.
Airbus signed a US$1.5 billion deal on September 6 to supply China Southern Airlines with 10 A330 jets; Earlier in July, Air China signed a contract to buy 20 A330s for US$3.1 billion.
China is in a rush to build and expand its airports and fleets to cope with growing passenger traffic.
In 2004, China's airports handled 240 million passengers, up 38.8 per cent from the previous year, and 5.5 million ton of cargo, up 22.3 per cent year-on-year, according to CAAC statistics. The CAAC estimates that by 2010, there will be an annual passenger volume of 500 million through China's airports and 10 million ton of cargo.
