'China accounted for over 20 per cent of Airbus deliveries in 2012'

BEIJING: China accounted for over 20 per cent of the global deliveries of Airbus last year, with the European aircraft manufacturer handing over 125 new aircraft to Chinese operators during the period.

Last year's deliveries included 106 A320 Family aircraft, 17 A330s and two A380s, according to figures from Airbus China.

This brought the number of in-service Airbus aircraft on the Chinese mainland to 876 as of the end of last year, state- run Xinhua news agency reported.

China's demand for passenger jets has seen steady growth in recent years, and the country has risen to become the world's second largest civil aviation market, after the US.

Chinese airlines have also placed orders for 41 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and are awaiting the results of investigations in the US into a potential battery fire risk to the aircraft which led to its grounding in several countries, to decide whether to go ahead with the purchase.

Four Chinese airlines have ordered a total of 41 Boeing 787s, including 15 for Air China, the country's flagship carrier, and all of them are awaiting delivery, an official in charge of press relations at Boeing (China) Co Ltd, has said.

A recent report released by Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd (COMAC) forecast that China will order 4,960 aircraft worth more than $563 billion from 2012 to 2031.

The COMAC expects global air passenger turnover to grow at an annual rate of 4.9 per cent in the next two decades, and that of China will expand by 7.2 per cent annually.