Nicholas Ionides/SINGAPORE
The Chinese Government is threatening to favour Airbus over Boeing in purchases by the country's airlines as a way of showing its displeasure with the USA for a series of recent high-level disputes.
The threats are being made through the state-run media, which reports that tensions are expected to "take their toll on Boeing" in the world's fastest-growing aviation market. Airbus "faces tremendous business opportunities", the reports add.
"Chinese officials and experts did not rule out the possibility that tensions in the relationship would affect business ties between the two nations. Politics and business could hardly be handled separately," the official China Daily newspaper said in a front-page report on 7 May.
"Ups and downs in the Sino-US relations over the past two decades have typically shown that. In the case of Airbus and Boeing, any major events between China and the US would affect the Chinese Government's decision over whose aircraft it is going to buy."
New aircraft purchases must be approved by the regulatory Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) and other government bodies. The reports quote CAAC officials as saying it is "reasonable for China to consider deals with aviation industrial giants such as Airbus and Boeing from many factors, including political and diplomatic ones".
China has been at odds with the USA since the 1 April collision of a US surveillance aircraft and a Chinese fighter over the South China Sea. Beijing is also angry about the sale of US weaponry to Taiwan, which the leadership considers a renegade province.
The official reports made no mention of whether recent Boeing sales of 767-300ER and 747-400 freighters to Hainan Airlines and China Southern Airlines will be affected by any retaliatory action. They strongly suggest that future aircraft purchases will favour Airbus, however.
One early win for Airbus may be with China Southwest Airlines, which is considering the A319 and Boeing 737-700 for intra-Tibet services. Airbus carried out demonstration flights for the airline and the CAAC at the end of April while Boeing did so in September. The China Daily says CAAC minister Liu Jianfeng personally approved the Airbus demonstration flights - something normally handled by department directors.
Source: Flight International
