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US$6b deal for 50 Boeing jets in sight
The announcement was made after Air China signed a contract last week with European aircraft maker Airbus for 20 A330 jets worth US$ 3.1 billion. Chicago-based Boeing and its rival Airbus are battling for more orders from China, where a decade of 9 per cent economic growth has increased demand for air travel. According to a Boeing estimate, China will need at least 2,300 aircraft in the next two decades to become the world's second largest aviation market after the United States. China's fast growing civil aviation industry saw 121 million trips by air last year, a growth rate of 16 per cent, or twice the world average, according to official statistics. The Boeing orders are a big boost for the Boeing 787, a mid-sized airliner expected to offer low fuel and operating costs, insiders say. The big China deal was a positive sign for Boeing's strategy of not taking on the Airbus' double-decker super-jumbo and focusing on smaller planes. Earlier this year, China signed a deal for five A350s from Airbus, a new model and a more sophisticated version of A330. Airbus hopes to clock up some 200 firm orders by the end of the year for its A350 whilst it is also pushing hard its A380 super-jumbo, of which it has sold five to China Southern. Boeing has so far registered 261 orders for its 787, while Airbus currently
only has 10 firm orders for the A350, which is expected to be in service by
2010.
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