MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Airbus and Boeing have a Chinese competitor

China launched a company to manufacture jumbo passenger aircrafts to challenge the dominance of commercial jet giants Airbus and Boeing in the market for aircrafts with more than 150 seats.

Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd (CACC) was unveiled with a registered capital of 19 billion Yuan (approximately 2.7 billion US dollars) with state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission alone investing 900 million US dollars, making it the biggest shareholder in the outfit. The company would be responsible for researching, developing, manufacturing and marketing the homegrown large passenger aircraft, official Xinhua news agency said. China's two aircraft makers China Aviation Industry Corporation 1 (AVIC 1) and China Aviation Industry Corporation II (AVIC II) are also shareholders in the company. "It is too early to set a timetable or make development strategy" the company's General Manager Jin Zhuanglong said, adding, "It will take a long time for the company to train talents and do research". He said China would make use of "worldwide resources" to develop the aircraft, and would welcome cooperation from foreign companies. China's first indigenous 90-seat regional jet ARJ21-700 Xiang Feng was unveiled last December and it is expected to make its maiden flight later this year. Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing Factory and the First Aircraft Institute of AVIC, which contributed to the ARJ21-700 project, have also joined the newly established CACC. The State Council and the cabinet gave the green signal for setting up of the company in February last year, an initiative to make the country capable of building aircrafts with a take-off weight of more than 100 tons, or planes with more than 150 seats. In the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, Airbus has set a plant for assembling the A320 and the first unit is expected to roll out next August.