China's Civil Aviation University has signed an agreement with Airbus, the European aircraft maker, on a three-year program to train Chinese maintenance technicians.

The program will start next year and facilities will include a computer-equipped training classroom, a plane installation, and a data room to be completed by 2009, all supported by Airbus.

Airbus will provide training in plane structure, maintenance and repair, according to the memorandum signed here Monday.

The company will also select at least 30 maintenance trainers and send them to Europe for advanced training and technical knowledge after a year.

In the next five years, it was estimated that China would need at least 5,000 maintenance engineers for Airbus aircraft, said Pierre Steffen, vice president of Airbus China in charge of customer service.

¡°It is the market demand that facilitated this cooperation, forming our training strategy of related Airbus technologies for Chinese maintenance engineers," he said.

He said the Civil Aviation University had a prestigious reputation in the aviation industry. The cooperation would also help Airbus China to recruit prospective graduates.

China signed a deal last week to buy 150 Airbus 320 planes. At the same time, Airbus signed agreements to open a final assembly line in China, its first outside Europe.

Airbus is displaying a scale model of the A380 super-jumbo jet at a major air show which opened Monday afternoon in Zhuhai, a coastal city in south China's Guangdong Province.