Airbus looks to China Airlines as regional partner

France's Airbus Industrie is seeking to partner with China Airlines Co Ltd (華航) to build a regional maintenance center for passenger aircraft in Taiwan and independently purchase a local airline components manufacturer, according to reports.

The combined investment reportedly could generate US$500 million in business opportunities for local firms.

Reports cite unnamed executives from Airbus as saying China Airline's CEO Christine Tsung (宗才怡) used her April visit to Toulouse, France to discuss the venture with senior executives of the company.

Executives at both China Airlines in Taiwan and Airbus in Singapore denied any knowledge of the deal.

But according to a Chinese language newspaper, a senior vice president of Airbus' purchasing department recently made a visit to Taiwan for discussions with China Airlines on the venture and examined the manufacturing standards of Taiwan's Aero Brakes and Spares Inc (航太零組件), which Airbus is considering purchasing, said the report.

Aero Brakes manufactures components for aircraft under license from original equipment manufacturers Honeywell and BF Goodrich.

Aero Brakes executives could not be reached yesterday for comment.

Airbus is deliberately keeping the discussions low key in order not to offend Taiwan's giant neighbor China, where it has significant investments, according to the report.

According to Airbus' year 2000 market forecast, it predicted this year China would be the country with the largest growth in fleet size in the world, notching up a predicted 7 percent. The report says Airbus hopes to sell over 1,500 aircraft in the next 20 years.

The maintenance center would initially be able to handle 100 aircraft per year, said the report.

Airbus already has spare parts centers in Washington, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Singapore and Beijing.