China to buy 70 Boeing aircraft: White House
china...@yahoo.com
purchase of 70 of the company's 737 aircraft during US President George
W. Bush's visit, a senior White House official said.
The senior Asian affairs aide on Bush's National Security Council, Mike
Green, disclosed the news aboard the US president's Air Force One
airplane as it flew from South Korea to China.
"Its a very important thing and I think its a testament to how our
approach to China is yielding real results -- in this case, an order
for 70 737 aircraft from Boeing," Green told reporters late Saturday.
The announcement came days after the US government forecast that
Washington's trade deficit with Beijing will exceed 200 billion dollars
this year, in part because of hurricanes and a strike at Boeing in
September.
A US government official had revealed the purchase announcement to AFP
earlier, while Bush was in Osan, South Korea.
Boeing China had refused to confirm a press report that China planned
to buy up to 150 aircraft.
"I cannot confirm it," George Liu, Boeing China's spokesman, told AFP.
"From our perspective, nothing has happened."
He added: "Boeing has a long-standing practice of deferring to our
customers, and until our customers make a formal announcement, we don't
have any further comment."
Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported Saturday that China was
expected to announce the purchase of up to 150 of Boeing's 150-seat 737
jets during Bush's visit, a deal worth up to 6.5 billion US dollars
after discounts.
Quoting an unnamed senior aviation source, the report also said the
China Aviation Supplies Import and Export Group -- the state aircraft
purchasing agency -- would buy up to 400 single-aisle aircraft in the
next year.
The China Aviation Supplies Import and Export Group could not be
reached for comment.
In January, Boeing signed a 7.2-billion-dollar deal to sell 60 of its
new 787 "Dreamliner" passenger jets to Chinese airlines.
The aircraft maker said earlier that Air China, China Eastern Airlines,
China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Shanghai Airlines and Xiamen
Airlines would each have at least one of the new planes for the 2008
Beijing Olympics.
Boeing predicted in its 2005 market outlook that air travel in China
will grow by 8.8 percent annually for domestic flights and 7.3 percent
with international flights included -- outpacing the global average of
4.8 percent.
China is in a rush to build and expand its airports to cope with its
growing passenger traffic.
In 2004, China's airports handled 240 million passengers, up 38.8
percent from the previous year, and 5.5 million tonnes (tons) of cargo,
up 22.3 percent year-on-year, according to the Civil Aviation
Administration of China (CAAC).
The CAAC estimates that by 2010 there will be an annual passenger
volume of 500 million people through China's airports and a cargo of
more than 10 million tonnes.
By 2020, annual passenger volumes will reach 1.4 billion, while cargo
will reach 30 million tonnes, according to CAAC data.
These are huge figures, and some government officials have started
worrying whether China will be able to keep up with demand, despite
plans calling for the number of airports to rise from 133 at present to
190 in 2010, and 230 by 2020.