STORY: China's high-quality development to provide opportunities for aviation industry: Airbus China CEO
DATELINE: June 30, 2023
LENGTH: 00:02:31
LOCATION: TIANJIN, China
CATEGORY: ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of Airbus China
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): GEORGE XU, CEO of Airbus China
3. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): GEORGE XU, CEO of Airbus China

STORYLINE:

CEO of Airbus China George Xu told Xinhua in a recent interview that the aviation industry could benefit from China's high-quality development.

According to Xu, the aviation industry is based on consumer power. During China's pursuit of high-quality development, people's livelihoods will be better.

Xu said that means good opportunities for the aviation industry.

SOUNDBITE 1 (English): GEORGE XU, CEO of Airbus China
"Because with high-quality development of China, people, households will have more consumer power. That definitely is good news for us. And I also observe that the Chinese government put a lot of resources on the infrastructure side, especially on the airport side in the middle and western parts of China to make the Chinese population in that part of China be accessible to air transportation services, which is another good news for us. And we also see that China wants to develop a high-end industry. And we have a long-term partnership with companies like AVIC and some of the aviation private sectors as well. And we were playing a role in the past. We will continue to play a role to help them to do the industrial upgrading."

The aviation industry was one of the most heavily impacted industries by the pandemic over the past three years.

But as the economy starts to recover, the industry has been picking up as well, including in China.

Xu said the industry is excited to see the market recovering.

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): GEORGE XU, CEO of Airbus China
"I see this year, there was a very strong signal of recovery on the Chinese market and also on the global market on the air traffic side. On the Chinese side, we see that domestic traffic has already gone back to above the pre-COVID level. I think everyone here in this industry has been very excited to see the market recover. We keep an optimistic view about China's economic growth in the next 20 years. We strongly believe that China will continue to play a role as a powerhouse to boost and stabilize the global economy. And aviation is part of it."

Earlier this month, Airbus for the first time delivered an aircraft assembled in north China's Tianjin to a European client.

In April, Airbus announced the building of a second assembly line in Tianjin to expand the production capacity of the A320 family of passenger aircraft to meet the demand of global clients.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Tianjin, China.
(XHTV)