Company gains ground on rival Boeing in race to dominate market
When Peter Tiarks made his first trip to China nearly 30 years ago onboard the first ever Airbus aircraft demonstration tour to the country, Boeing aircraft dominated the Chinese skies.
Airbus SAS sold its first aircraft, an A310, to China two years later in 1985. Boeing Co had a 13-year head start.
But now Airbus is delivering two aircraft to China on average each week, and it controls 49 percent of the Chinese market for planes with more than 100 seats.
The question of how to serve the ever-increasing Airbus fleet in China - now with around 850 jets - tops the agenda for Tiarks, Airbus China vice-president for customer services.
Tiarks' answer to that challenge is to go beyond ensuring the quality and efficiency of basic support, and offer value-added services to help airlines improve their operations.
As oil prices surge to record-high levels, the European aircraft manufacturer believes it can help airlines save costs not only by building more fuel-efficient planes, but also through customer services, which meet the airlines' need for cost-effective outsourcing options, and help save costs in areas such as logistics, flight operations and engineering processes.
"The idea is that we take certain parts of the airlines' responsibilities, such as maintenance or engineering. We call it `tailored support packages'," Tiarks said.
"We are well on track with the deployment of such services in China due to the open and innovative attitude of the Chinese airlines. Our intent is to deploy more and more enhanced services in China," he said.
The strategy is an essential part of an objective set by the EADS Group, Airbus' parent company, to generate 25 percent of its business revenue through services by 2020.
Cumquat market in S China's Guangxi
Feedback
RSS
