Airbus may benefit from Boeing incident
Rocky political relations between the United States and China could benefit European aircraft manufacturer Airbus Industrie as it tries to play catch-up to rival Boeing in the growing mainland market.
Allegations have been made in the past week that the US installed surveillance and recording devices in President Jiang Zemin's new aircraft, a 767 built by Boeing and delivered to China in October.
'A case could be made that, given this, China will 'punish' the US by tipping its next big order of jets to Airbus and make a sale happen that much sooner,' a Hong Kong-based aviation analyst said.
Official mainland reports have indicated in recent months that Airbus is close to finalising a deal to sell Beijing between 30 and 50 new A320 aircraft worth up to US$2.7 billion.
However, an Airbus official played down the speculation.
He said that such 'sudden factors don't affect deals significantly'.
'Large deals with China don't happen overnight,' said Anthony Phillips, Airbus' communications director for Asia.
'Don't forget that the spy-plane incident in Hainan last year was also significant [for Sino-US relations], yet Beijing made a large order for Boeing aircraft soon after.
'We are hopeful, and confident, that some form of deal can be concluded this year.'
In October, Beijing signed up to buy 30 Boeing 737 jets worth an estimated US$1.6 billion.
Boeing dominates the mainland market for commercial airliners.
Airbus' share has been growing steadily and now accounts for about 21 per cent.
Mr Phillips said Airbus had taken 105 orders for aircraft from China, with 84 already delivered.
The last major order for Airbus aircraft was placed in 1997 by China Supplies Import and Export, the official aviation equipment supplier in the mainland. It ordered 30 A320 aircraft.
Mr Phillips said 'pointers' were emerging that indicated the worst was over for the Asian aviation industry downturn.
'There are glimmers of optimism returning . . . although it may be difficult to quantify that confidence,' he said.
