Airbus will expand and deepen its cooperation with the Chinese aviation industry, said Laurence Barron, president of Airbus China, on Saturday.

Laurence made the remarks at the Beijing International Aviation Expo that concludes on Saturday. He said, "Airbus is carrying out further cooperation with Chinese aircraft enterprises in many aspects, including R&D, installation and purchase of raw materials and spare parts."

Airbus expects the value of its joint-venture projects in China to reach 200 million U.S. dollars in 2010 and 450 million U.S. dollars in 2015, Laurence said.

In 2008, Airbus purchased 105 million U.S. dollars worth of products in China and the trend is growing. More than half of the 5,800 Airbus planes serving in the world are installed with parts made by Chinese manufacturers, Laurence said.

He added that Airbus has been optimizing its A320 series to cope with the intensifying competition, especially the challenges to be brought up by China's self-developed passenger plane.

Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China plans to put its 168-seat C919 passenger plane into market in 2016.

As a pioneer in the cooperation between Sino-EU aircraft industries, Airbus is in partnership with AVIC Harbin Aircraft Industry Co. Ltd. and AVIC Xi'an Aircraft Industry Co. Ltd. and has a general assembly plant in north China's Tianjin City.

(Xinhua News Agency September 26, 2009)