Orders pour in for jumbo jets to be made in China (3)

The assembly lines for the jumbo jet, which are still under construction, are due to be complete by the end of this year.

Jiang Liping, chief engineer with the Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing Company, said the base will have five main production lines which will assemble parts produced by other manufacturers in China.

China will need 4,960 commercial planes over the next 20 years, representing a value of US$563 billion, Xinhua news agency said yesterday, citing COMAC.

COMAC also forecast that China would require 4,273 "large" passenger planes between now and 2031.

The forecast for all commercial planes is lower than an estimate by US giant Boeing in September that said 5,260 commercial jets would be needed.

COMAC also said air passenger volume in China would grow more than 7 percent a year over the next two decades.

Chinese airlines carried 292 million domestic passengers last year, an increase of 9.2 percent from 2010, according to official figures.

The C919 will compete with Boeing and Airbus in the medium-range sector - 70 percent of China's market.

European consortium Airbus had 853 planes in service in China by the end of October, about half of China's total fleet of aircraft with more than 100 seats, the company said at the show. It plans to deliver 120 new aircraft, mainly A320s, to Chinese airlines this year.

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