In for the long haul

I have had the privilege of being the president of Airbus China for almost six years. In those years I have witnessed first hand the rapid and constant development of China's civil aviation and it has been very impressive.

The first indication is, of course, the growth of the number of aircraft in service. In 1985, Airbus delivered its first aircraft, an A310, to China. In 1995, the first year after we established Airbus China and opened an office in Beijing, there were only 29 Airbus aircraft in operation. When I came to China to live in Beijing in early 2004, the Airbus fleet in the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao had grown to 200.

Today, some 520 Airbus aircraft are in service with airlines on the Chinese mainland - more than 2.5 times the number when I came to China. Now, Airbus aircraft make up 41 percent of the total in-service fleet of aircraft over 100 seats in China.