China to continue to do 5% of Airbus' outsourcing business for A350 planes

Chinese enterprises will continue to undertake five percent of Airbus' outsourcing business for A350 planes, sources with Airbus China said on Thursday.

The Europe-based company believes China will be the world's second largest aviation market and one of its most important partners around the globe in the next two decades.

The A350 is Airbus' latest long-distance, double-aisle, wide-fuselage model. The company predicts that over the next 20 years this type of aircraft will account for 40 percent of global demand for civilian planes.

In October 2006, Airbus and China Aviation Supplies Import & Export Group Corp. signed a letter of intent for the purchase of twenty A350s.

In July 2005, the Airbus Beijing engineering technology center was opened and began to recruit Chinese engineers for research and development work on A350s.

At the end of last October, the center became a joint venture between Airbus, China Aviation Industry Corp. 1 and China Aviation Industry Corp. 2. The European company took 70 percent of the new entity, CAIC 2 took 25 percent and CAIC 1 the remaining five percent.

Sources said that 105 Europe-trained Chinese engineers have joined the Airbus Beijing engineering technology center. According to the center's plan, the number will reach 200 by the end of 2008.

There are 300-plus Airbus planes operating in China. Last October Airbus inked a framework agreement with Tianjin Freetrade Zone, CAIC 1 and CAIC 2 to jointly establish an A320 assembly facility in China.