China set to order 218 commercial aircraft in 2010
08 Mar 2010
Beijing: China mainland carriers plan to order as many as 218 commercial aircraft this year in order to cope with an expected surge in demand for air travel in the coming years, state media reported on Monday.
Xinhua quoted Li Jiaxiang, director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), as saying that China's annual passenger volume is likely to reach 700 million by 2020, and double that by 2030.
Li also said that passenger transportation and cargo freight volumes this year are both expected to rise 12% to 260 million and 4,48 million tonnes respectively. Passenger volume in 2009 totalled 230 million people and cargo freight amounted to 4.46 million metric tons, Xinhua quoted Li as saying.
Li also mentioned that China will spend CNY90 billion on 25 airport expansion projects for the year.
The new orders for large commercial aircraft are expected to increase fleet size to more than 1,500, according to official figures.
Flag carrier, Air China, said last month it had agreed to buy 20 Airbus A320 planes, with 'significant price concessions" granted over prevailing list prices of $1.6 billion.
China Southern Airlines, the nation's biggest carrier by fleet size, had said in January that it too would buy 20 Airbus A320 jets, at prices significantly lower than the list price of about $1.5 billion.
