Airbus CEO: China Important Future Market

Airbus Chief Executive Officer Thomas Enders said on Saturday, he plans to expand his company's manufacturing and engineering projects throughout the world.

Currently, 65 percent of Airbus' planes are sold in the Europe. Enders said the company must broaden its market to ensure success. Those future markets include Asia.

China showed robust growth in civil aviation. According to an estimate by Airbus last February, the mainland of China would need more than 3,000 aircraft between 2006 and 2025, including 180 super jumbo passenger planes.

China set up its first ever jumbo passenger aircraft company in Shanghai last May. It was a major step in the country's large jet program.

The company, named Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd. (CACC), is expected to build aircraft with a take-off weight of more than 100 tons, which includes more than 150 seats.

While attending the Sept. 27-28 Summer Davos Forum, held in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin, Enders expressed his hopes to join in China's large plane project.

We look forward to strengthening research and development with Chinese enterprises and will probably triple out-sourcing volume in China, which is to reach half a billion U.S. dollars in the next couple of years, said Enders.

He added a new Tianjin-based Airbus A320 manufacturing plant would be officially inaugurated Sept. 28.

The assembly plant is a joint venture between Airbus and Tianjin Zhongtian Aviation Industry Investment Co., a Chinese alliance of the AVIC I, AVIC II, and Tianjin Bonded Zone Investment Group.

AVIC I and AVIC II are China's two leading state-owned aviation manufacturers.