A Boeing 737-800 passenger jet of Hainan Airlines takes off at the Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing,on Dec 30, 2015. [Photo/IC]

US aircraft giant ships 200 planes to China during 2015, accounting for 55% of total

Boeing Co achieved a record in the China market in 2015, with the delivery of 200 aircraft to the nation, which accounted for 55 percent of the market's new aircraft deliveries during the year, the US airplane manufacturer said on Thursday.

Compared with the start of 12th Five-Year Plan in 2011, Boeing's delivery numbers to China increased 80 percent in 2015, said Darren Hulst, Northeast Asia marketing managing director of Boeing's commercial airplanes group.

Chinese airlines got more than 360 new aircraft in 2015 in total, which is also a record for the industry, he said.

The total transport turnover of China's air traffic increased 13.6 percent in 2015 compared with 2014 and about 440 million person-trips were made, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

The annual growth of China's air traffic in 2015 was still above the global average, said Hulst, although China's GDP growth is slowing.

"We expect the strong growth trend in Chinese aviation to continue," he said, as China's economy is transitioning to the consumption and service sectors, which will drive civil aviation development.

The international network growth of Chinese airlines is also a major reason for the manufacturer's business growth, Hulst said.

In the first quarter of 2016, the long-haul capacity of Chinese airlines will increase 40 percent compared with the same period in 2015, which means the carriers need more widebody aircraft in the international market.

"China's international growth is just beginning, and the country is the first one with outbound passenger traffic above 100 million per year," Hulst said.

Boeing's main rival also got positive results in the China market in 2015.

Airbus SAS delivered about 160 aircraft to China in 2015 and it is the sixth year in a row for the European aircraft builder's deliveries to China to exceed 100, with 635 Airbus products received by its 85 clients globally in 2015.

In the widebody sector, Airbus remains dominant, as Chinese clients received 24 A330 widebody aircraft from Airbus in 2015 for the international market.

"The A330 could cover the long-haul routes to Europe, Australia as well as the Belt and Road countries," said Eric Chen, president of Airbus China.

However, the orders of both giants from the global market fell in 2015 compared with the previous year.

Airbus received 1,036 orders from 53 global clients in 2015, while its orders totaled 1,456 in 2014.

Boeing's worldwide orders declined from 1,432 in 2014 to 768 orders in 2015.

The order reduction is attributed to the manufacturers' huge backlogs, said Hulst.

Both Boeing and Airbus enjoyed fast order growth from 2011 to 2014, Hulst said, and the manufacturers need time to resolve the backlogs.

By the end of 2015, Boeing's backlog totaled 5,795 and Airbus' backlog was 6,787.

The two manufacturers are working on improving their production rate in order to meet the huge demand.

Boeing will improve its production rate of B737 aircraft to 47 each month in 2017 from 42 currently and 52 each month by 2018.

Airbus also announced it would improve its production rate of A320s to 60 each month by 2019.