Aviation giant Airbus has said it will deliver a set of flight and navigation simulators for A320 passenger planes to China's leading civil aviation flight university in August.

Airbus said the move represents part of its effort to honor its agreement with the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to improve its civil aviation safety standards.

According to a statement made available to Xinhua by Airbus China, the simulator to be delivered to the Civil Aviation Flight University of China is valued at "several million yuan" (hundreds of thousands of US dollars).

With the simulator, the university will be capable of offering training courses for flying large passenger jets with more than 100 seats, according to Airbus.

Located in Guanghan City in southwest China's Sichuan Province, the university has produced at least 90 percent of the country's civil aviation pilots, according to a spokesman for the school.

There are more than 100 A320 passenger planes in service in China, and more will be introduced to the country's airlines, Airbus said. Jean-Hugues Depigny, vice-president of customer services of Airbus China, said Airbus is committed to the development of China's aviation industry.

"In China, we not only sell planes, but also offer quality training and support services to our customers in a timely manner, " he said in an interview with press.

Airbus plans to create its fourth biggest engineering center in Beijing to do aircraft design work for its super long-range passenger plane A350.

The center, which will be home to about 200 engineers, will be the second largest of its kind outside Europe after the one in the United States.

A350 passenger planes will carry up to approximately 300 passengers, said the vice-president.

(Xinhua News Agency May 11, 2005)