Jet makers ranging from Brazil's Embraer to Canada's Bombardier have found their niche in the potentially huge market in China.

Bombardier Aerospace, the world's third-largest commercial aircraft maker with focus on smaller regional jets, said it plans to produce C Series aircraft in China through a joint venture with Shenyang Aircraft Corp, a unit of China Aviation Industry Corp I (AVIC I), China's biggest aircraft maker.

Bombardier is considering launching the program at the end of this year to produce the regional jet with 110 to 130 seats, according to Wang Jialin, China sales manager with the Canadian plane maker.

Industry officials said the move could help the plane maker win more orders from Chinese airlines as China would reward purchasing orders to companies with more industrial cooperation with local companies, in the hope of borrowing advanced technologies.

The Shenyang company has been making plane components for Bombardier for more than 10 years and both companies have been cooperating on 70-seater Q-400, of which the three of the four sections of its fuselage made by the Shenyang venture.

Rival Brazil's Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA, or Embraer, has just harvested an order of 100 aircraft from Hainan Airlines, China's fourth-biggest carrier.

The US$2.7 billion deal which was made in August include 50 50-seat ERJ 145s and 50 106-seat Embraer 190s. It is the first time a Chinese carrier has bought an Embraer 190.

The ERJ 145s will be produced by the joint venture Harbin Embraer Aircraft Industry (HEAI), in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin, with deliveries set to begin in September next year, the Brazilian company said in a statement.

Source:佚名