Source:
https://scmp.com/business/china-business/article/1638428/us-deal-zhuhai-airshow-puts-china-planes-world-map
Business/ China Business

US deal in Zhuhai Airshow puts China planes on world map

More than 100 Avic aircraft are ordered at the mainland's top international air fair, including a contract to supply Y-12s to a California company

Business soared at the Zhuhai Airshow as the mainland sets it sights on becoming a major international aviation player. Photo: Dickson Lee

Orders for more than 100 Avic planes and helicopters at the Zhuhai Airshow, including a breakthrough deal in the United States, have boosted China's ambitions to move into advanced aviation markets overseas.

Aviation Industry Corp of China's general aviation subsidiary Avicopter said yesterday it was looking to tap the US express delivery market with its Y-12 family of utility planes, which will be sold to the US for the first time in a deal with a Californian-based company that was among a raft of contracts involving 111 aircraft it has bagged at this week's airshow.

The South China Morning Post reported on Monday that the model to be exported to the US for the first time was Y-12F, a 19-seat turboprop transport aircraft that is the latest version of a plane made by Avic since the 1980s.

Li Xianzhe, the director of the Y-12 programme at Avicopter, said the deal included four Y-12Fs - expected to gain US Federal Aviation Authority certification "in half a year hopefully" - and 16 Y-12Es, which gained that certification in 2006.

"The Y-12 is the only FAA-certified Chinese civil aircraft … this purchase marks the first time for any Chinese-made planes to enter an advanced market, and the US has the highest standards, so this testifies to the achievement of Chinese aircraft manufacturing," Li said.

Coptervision, the US company buying the planes, would mainly use them to fly tourists over the Grand Canyon, Li said.

"We plan to do some testing for the Y-12F in the US next year," Li said. "Express delivery will be a very important market."

Gaultier Letourneau-Ross, a consultant with Avia-Tek, said the US deal was "a good step in the intended direction for China but it is not a huge step in the grand scheme of things".

"China has greater ambitions than the Y12F, which operates in a relatively small market segment - utility planes," he said. "The ultimate goal is to one day enter the commercial airliner market with bigger planes. That would lead Comac, the Chinese national aircraft maker, to compete with the likes of Embraer, Bombardier, Airbus and Boeing."

Avicopter has signed a US agent, AstroAero, to explore the North American market.

Avic International, an Avic unit, has traditionally been the only channel for the export of Chinese aircraft.

Zhao Lei, director of the sales of civil aviation aircraft at Avicopter, said the Y-12, the first mainland-made plane to be exported when sold to Sri Lanka in 1986, had long been sold to markets in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia.

"More than 130 Y-12s have been exported, out of more than 200 delivered in total," Zhao said.

Avicopter has also signed contracts to sell four Y-12 to a Russian dealer and six to Avic International. It also received orders for 46 of its AC311 helicopters and for 35 Z-9 helicopters.