New International Air Show Planned in Chengdu, China

Source: Paris Air Show 2015

From 2017 the capital of the booming region in Southwest China expects to host a major new International aerospace trade event.

The new International airshow would be held every two years from September 2017 at Deyang Guanghan Airport near Chengdu, one of the major hubs of China’s aerospace industry in one of China’s fastest-growing economic regions. The EU Project Innovation Centre (www.eupic.org.cn) and Farnborough International Ltd (www.farnboroughinternational.org) are supporting the project.

The show would include three trade days for an expected attendance of some 30,000 business visitors, and two public days when a crowd of at least 100,000 spectators is foreseen. Space for 300 to 400 exhibitors is planned, and for 60 static-display aircraft. The daily flight display would accomodate a similar number. Guanghan’s former air base at is now the home of the Civil Aviation Flight University of China (CAFUC, www.cafuc.edu.cn) where more than 90 % of China’s airline aircrews are trained.

The airshow will focus mainly on civil and commercial aerospace activities, including MRO and support services. AVIC, CATIC and COMAC will be present in force, and the show is being promoted as a forum where International companies can find new paths into the Chinese market. Main signals of Chinese civil aviation are the planning for 56 new airports plus the renovation and expansion of 91 existing ones.

Airbus forecasts that around 4,000 new aircraft will be needed by the Chinese airlines over the next 20 years. Boeing’s outlook sets the target further, to nearly 6,000, out of the 14,330 new airliners worth US$ 2.2 trillion foreseen for the Asian market.

An International airshow in the Chengdu region means a substantial departure from the present setting, as all such events were located Eastern China so far. In the area of Chengdu, the main city in Western China, more than 30 companies and research centers employ over 50,000 workers in the aerospace sector. Excellent transport links with the Western world are being developed.

Recently Chengdu has become the eastern hub of the once-a-week transcontinental freight train service by DHL Freight’s China Rail service linking with Moscow and Poland. The 9,826km train journey takes 14 days, but cuts transit time by 40 days compared to ocean freight. The new route also comes at a sixth the shipping cost of an air freight service (http://www.dhl-freight-connections.com/7713).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Andrea Artoni

AeroStudio