Technicians work on the final assembly line at Airbus SAS' A320 plant in Tianjin. The factory is now able to assemble three jets a month. [Photo / Bloomberg]

Airbus China president says Chinese business must be seen as two-way traffic

Laurence Barron, Airbus China president

BEIJING - Like many expatriates, Laurence Barron could make a long list of dislikes about Beijing - cold winter, traffic congestion and pollution - to name just a few.

But the 60-year-old still loves living in Beijing and has decided to continue to keep a home in the capital city even after he retires.

"It just feels like this is the place to be right now in the world," said Barron, Airbus China president.

To Barron, the most irresistible temptation of living in the buzzing city comes from his work - grabbing half of the skies of China, the world's fastest growing commercial aviation market, before 2013.

The European aircraft manufacturer has steadily ramped up its fleet in China with its market share increasing from 7 percent in 1995 to 45 percent by the end of April. Its US rival, The Boeing Company, which had a 13-year head start in the country, still holds the rest of the market.

No one could afford to miss the China ride.

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As the world's largest commercial aircraft market outside the United States, China saw its air traffic maintain an annual growth rate of 18 percent during the past three decades, which was three times the world's average growth rate of air transportation during the same period, according to figures from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), the industry watchdog.

Looking ahead, China will be the biggest contributor of new air travelers by 2014, according to a report by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). China will not only see the world's fastest annual growth rate of international passenger traffic, at 10.8 percent, by 2014, but also record the highest annual growth rate of domestic passenger numbers, at 13.9 percent, during the period, said the Geneva-based organization that represents 230 airlines.