ANDREW DOYLE AND NICHOLAS IONIDES / SINGAPORE
Meanwhile, deliveries by Western aircraft manufacturers are being delayed by red tape
China Aviation Industry II (AVIC II) plans to select by March a foreign partner to help it develop a 30-50 seat regional jet family, after receiving the green light from the government to proceed with the project.
The move comes as efforts by Bombardier, Embraer and Fairchild Dornier to deliver aircraft as part of previously agreed orders from Chinese airlines are being thwarted by Beijing's unexpected failure to grant final approval for the deals.
AVIC II has held talks with Fairchild Dornier about building the 528JET in China. Proposed new-entrant Alliance Aircraft claims to have signed an agreement with Harbin Aircraft - part of the Chinese conglomerate - to outsource manufacture of the 35-seat member of its proposed SL-100 family.
"We will try to complete a report on selecting the partner by March and submit it to the relevant [government] departments for approval," says AVIC II general manager Zhang Yanzhong.
Current projections envisage Chinese airlines operating nearly 1,900 passenger aircraft in all size categories by 2020, with an increasing number of regional jets, even though few are in service at present.
AVIC I, which has a significant presence in the civil market, is meanwhile pursuing development of the larger ARJ21 family, which is likely to comprise 70- and 90-seat members and due to fly in 2005.
Despite calls by the Civil Aviation Administration of China two years ago for domestic carriers to embrace regional jets as means to develop a US-style hub-and-spoke network, a raft of orders still awaits state approval. Manufacturer and airline sources say they are unable to explain the reasons for the delays.
Some suggest the government is under pressure from Chinese industry to protect the market for indigenously-built products such as the AVIC I MA60 turboprop, and to secure more extensive industrial offset deals before approving orders.
Embraer has already built, but not delivered, several 50-seat ERJ-145s for China Southern Airlines after the airline signed a memorandum of agreement for 20 aircraft plus 10 options a year ago. Wuhan Airlines wants approval for an order for five ERJ-145s.
Fairchild Dornier is waiting for clearance to begin handing over more 328JETs to Hainan Airlines as part of a long-standing follow-on order for 21 aircraft to add to the 19 it has in service. It had been anticipated that the Fairchild Dornier deal would be cleared during German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's November visit to Beijing but approval failed to materialise. "We are in intensive talks to solve the problem," says the US-German company.
Sources suggest the Hainan deal delays are due to finance issues, though Fairchild Dornier declines to comment. China Eastern Airlines is awaiting approval to purchase 30 Bombardier CRJs and Shandong Airlines wants 10 CRJ700s.
Source: Flight International
