BEIJING - Of the 863
civil planes operating in China as of November
2005, 534 were built by Boeing of the United
States, a senior Chinese civil-aviation executive
said recently.
"Calculated according to
the catalogue price, China has spent nearly US$40
billion on purchasing planes from the United
States," Li Jiaxiang,
president of the China National Aviation Holding
Co, said at the China-US Business Forum.
He said growth in China's civil-aviation
industry has contributed tremendously to the
development of Sino-US economic and trade
relations.
"The greatest beneficiary is
the US plane-manufacturing business," said Li.
"China purchases a large number of plane engines,
aero-electric equipment, accessories and advanced
[navigation] devices each year and enjoys
maintenance services provided by US companies."
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of employees
of China's airplane companies have received
various forms of professional training in the
United States, which has also brought more profit
to the US aviation industry, Li noted. "The growth
of China's civil aviation [sector] has provided
hundreds of thousands job opportunities to the US
aviation industry, which proves that the two
nations have win-win economic and trade
relations," said Li.
Last year alone,
China's airline companies ordered 60 B-787
aircraft and 70 B-737s, with a total price of more
than $11 billion, ranking 2005 as China's largest
aircraft-purchasing year ever. China will need
more than 2,600 new planes in the next 20 years,
costing more than $213 billion, according to the
latest analysis by Boeing. Gao Hongfeng, deputy
director general of China's General Administration
of Civil Aviation (CAAC), has confirmed that the
country will purchase more than 100 airliners each
year from 2006 to 2010.
Experts predict
that China will see an annual increase of more
than 22 million middle-class consumers, and will
have become the largest tourist-destination
country and the fourth-largest source of tourists
globally by 2020, with the number of Chinese
traveling abroad reaching 100 million.
Li
said the huge potential consumption by Chinese
tourists in the United States will be conducive to
narrowing the Sino-US trade deficit. China and the
US should promote bilateral economic and trade
ties under an effective communication mechanism,
Li said, and airline companies of both countries
should strengthen cooperation by investing and
holding shares in each other.
New
aircraft orders called in line with
demand At a press conference in Beijing recently, Gao
refuted suggestions that China's rapid
introduction of airliners might outgrow demand,
saying that buying about 100 a year for the next
five years was "suitable".
"China will
purchase more than 100 aircraft each year in the
11th Five-Year Plan period," 2006-10, he said.
Ordering airliners is a long-term procedure, with
some deliveries taking place more than 10 years,
Gao said. "Market needs and flight safety are
taken into account," he said.
China
contracted to buy 442 airliners last year from
Boeing and European aircraft manufacturer Airbus,
with deliveries spread out over several years. But
some experts have criticized the size of the
order, saying it exceeded actual needs.
Qiu Lianzhong, a senior expert at a
Beijing-based civil-aviation research center, said
the rapid expansion of China's air fleet might
entail some risk.
"The surging cost of
fuel and pilot training leave little room for
profits," Qiu said. "Airline companies will have
to raise airfares or collect fuel surcharges to
make more profit, which might discourage people
from flying." On the other hand, if air fleets
keep expanding, vicious competition will be
unavoidable, leading to rapid growth of the
industry but with little profit or even losses.
The robust market has propelled airline
companies such as Air China, China Southern
Airlines and China Eastern Airlines to expand
their fleets. According to CAAC statistics, about
138 million people flew in mainland China last
year, up 105% from 2000. Traffic is expected to
double again by 2010 for both passengers and
cargo, Gao said.
He also noted: "We will
face a lot of challenges in training pilots,
especially captains, for these airplanes." At the
end of 2005, the Chinese mainland had 863
airplanes, but the number of pilots was only about
11,000. Industry insiders say the crew-to-aircraft
ratio is far lower than the industry norm.
Already, state-owned Air China has announced plans
to recruit its first foreign pilots to cope with
staff shortages.
Gao said the CAAC, as the
industry regulator, set strict requirements on
airline companies with respect to pilot training,
maintenance and managerial staff to ensure safe
operations.
"If the expansion of the fleet
conflicts with flight safety, we must put safety
first," he said. With more than 5,000 flights
every day now in the country, there are more than
11,000 takeoffs and landings. Therefore, the
pressure on safety is very high, the vice director
said.
