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AEROSPACE
Chinese HNA buys into French airline, steps into Europe
by Staff Writers
Paris (AFP) Oct 23, 2012


Spain's Aritex named supplier for China's new airlineraer
Shanghai (AFP) Oct 23, 2012 - Spanish group Aritex said Tuesday it had been chosen to assemble wing parts for China's new medium-range commercial jet, a flagship project aimed at challenging the dominance of Airbus and Boeing.

The Barcelona-based firm has signed an agreement with a unit of the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) to assemble the central wing box of the C919 plane, Aritex said in a statement to AFP.

The wing box secures the wing within the fuselage.

Aritex already assembles another component -- the horizontal tailplane -- for the aircraft, which is scheduled to come into service in 2016.

The company, whose business spans the automation and renewable energy sectors, said it plans to set up an assembly plant in Shanghai to serve the Chinese aviation industry.

The C919 will have up to 168 seats with a range of up to 5,555 kilometres (3,444 miles), according to COMAC's website. The Chinese company also makes a smaller regional jet, the ARJ21.

Industry officials say the C919 will compete with Boeing and Airbus in the medium-range sector, which represents 70 percent of China's market.

Aritex's commercial success is a rare bright spot in an otherwise gloomy economic picture for Spain, where unemployment is at nearly 25 percent and the government is struggling to cut its budget deficit.

The group also supplies to Airbus as well as other companies such as Canadian plane manufacturer Bombardier.

A Chinese firm has acquired an interest in a French airline for the first time with the announcement on Tuesday that HNA has acquired nearly half of Aigle Azur.

HNA is a diversified group which owns the fourth-biggest Chinese airline Hainan Airlines, and has tried for some time to gain a foothold in Europe.

HNA has acquired 48 percent of Aigle Azur, the oldest airline in France, which now intends to open a route from Paris to Beijing for the beginning of the summer season in 2013.

The value of the deal was not disclosed.

The president of HNA, Chen Feng, said: "Aigle Azur is a very good, profitable business."

He said: "It is a small company which cannot develop without the help of a big firm. It is mutually beneficial."

The Chinese company, active in finance, tourism and transportation, was created in 2000, has assets totalling 36 billion euros ($46.7 billion) and achieved sales of 12 billion euros last year.

The deal was signed in the presence of journalists and the president of Aigle Azur, Arezki Idjerouidene, who said the agreement marked "a new departure" for the airline which could now look to a "new future."

Managing director Meziane Idjerouidene said that the route to Beijing would be the first development, and would be served by five weekly round trips by a long-haul Airbus A330 soon to be delivered to the company.

This marks the first such stake in a French airline by a Chinese company, and the shareholding is almost the maximum permitted by European Union rules which prevent a non-EU company from having a majority interest in an EU airline.

Aigle Azur was founded in 1946 just after World War II. It is a private company which claims to be the second-biggest French airline after the giant group Air France. It operates on niche markets, and historically on routes to Algeria.

The airline offers 23 destinations such as Mali, Portugal, Tunisia and Russia and operates 12 Airbus medium-range airliners.

In 2001 the airline was bought by French tourism and transportation company GoFast, headed by Arezki Idjerouidene.

In the year to March 31, it carried 1.8 million passengers on 300 regular weekly flights and achieved sales of 287 million euros ($372 million).

HNA owns 12 airlines in China and operates 410 airliners of which 270 fly for Hainan Airlines.

For several years Hainan Airlines has tried to gain a foothold in Europe, showing interest in German company Air Berlin and in the Hungarian firm Malev. German press reports say it was also interested in Belgian company Brussels Airlines.

Last year it acquired an interest in Turkish freight airline ACT Cargo Airlines.

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AEROSPACE
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Sao Paulo (AFP) Oct 22, 2012
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