Air China to order 40 Airbus aircraft for European routes

Air China plans to order 40 Airbus aircraft in the next five years to support its European expansion, President Li Jiaxiang revealed yesterday at the EU-China Business Summit in Beijing.

CA launched twice-weekly Beijing-Dubai-Athens service aboard a 767 Wednesday, and Li said it will start serving Berlin, Istanbul and Warsaw from Beijing in March and will begin flying daily from the capital to Manchester, Zurich, Dusseldorf, Vienna and Milan and from Shanghai to Rome in 2009. "This year we have made a turnaround and earned a profit on our routes to Europe for the first time," he noted.

Separately, Li predicted Airbus will continue to increase its share of the Chinese market and will reach the same level as Boeing by 2011 (ATWOnline, Nov. 27). Airbus currently holds a 35% share in China while Boeing grabs about 60%.