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Manufacturers at home and abroad are showing an increasing interest in the emerging market of feeder aircrafts, of which China will probably need much more in the following decades.
Boeing, Airbus and other aircraft manufacturing giants brought the latest model of their small jetliners to the Third China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, which opened Monday in Zhuhai City in south China's Guangdong Province.
Xi'an Aircraft Industry (Group) Co. Ltd., one of leading aircraft manufacturer in China, showed off its attractive new MA60 model at the exhibition and won 60 orders for the plane.
The leading China Aviation Industry Corporation I is about to build the next generation in turbofan feeder aircraft to expand its market share.
Randy Baseler, vice president of commercial airplanes group, Boeing, said the company is much concerned about China's small airplane market for feeder flights which are expected to grow in the coming century with economic development growing steadily on China's east coast and the rapid development of the western region.
China is going to leap forward in terms of economic development, which requires a even bigger need for aviation services, and Boeing wants to perform well in this prosperous market, said the vice president.
Boeing's short-range 737-300 has already carried out flight demonstrations in southeast China.
Airbus, Bombardier Aerospace of Canada, and other manufacturers in Russia, Ukraine and Brazil showed their latest products on the show in Zhuhai.
The passenger transportation for feeder flights in China is believed to grow by 10 percent annually in next five years, as predicted by world professional aircraft manufacturers, and it will hit more than 10 million in 2005.
China still needs over 400 of feeder aircrafts for regional flights, which will account for more than 26 percent of the total flights in 2019, as estimated by experts.
Zhang Hongbiao, vice director with the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, said that China will give top priority to the development of new turbofan feeder airplanes with 50 to 70 seats, according to international airworthiness criterion.
China also welcomes international cooperation and expects foreign partners to join feeder aircraft projects by various means, Zhang added.
Even though the feeder flight is just beginning in China, said Liu Wanming, vice director in charge of programming department of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, it surely has a bright prospect and becomes a new growth point in the aviation industry thanks to the government's encouraging policies.
(Xinhua 11/08/2000)
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