Boost for China's civil aviation market

China's efforts to develop its civil aviation market received a boost when China Helicopter Industry Development Association signed a cooperation agreement with US-based Vertical Aviation Technologies (VAT) in Beijing Thursday.
This is the second helicopter cooperation deal that has been reported in China last month.
Earlier this month, Shanghai-based Zhong-Ou International Group said that it would cooperate with Eurocopter SA to assemble helicopters for business use in China.
"We will have the rights for marketing, servicing and exclusive manufacturing of helicopters for VAT in the Asia-Pacific region,"said Xu Changdong, president of the Entrepreneur Alliance of the Returned Western Scholars Association.
Xu is a representative for the Chinese partners in the VAT deal: China Helicopter Industry Development Association Co, US-China Capital Inc, and China Anda (Beijing) Travel & Resort Co.
Priced at five million yuan ($760,277) each, the company plans to produce 300 helicopters within two or three years, and to reach 600 in the three years after that, Xu said, adding that the partners would also set up an R&D center in China to develop different kinds of helicopters and develop localization of all parts in the future.
VAT is one of the largest helicopter producers in the US. With more than 40 years' R&D experience, its popular products include the Hummingbird series.
Although Xu said the company has not yet decided where to produce the helicopters, he said that government delegations from different cities had shown their interest.
"The production base will bring prosperity to almost all parts of the aviation industry,"Wang Yueyi, an official from Yantai Economic and Technological Development Zone in Shandong Province, told the Global Times Thursday.
Until now, personal aircraft and helicopters have been absent from Chinese skies owing to tight military control over China's airspace. But last year, the authorities announced plans to open airspace below 4,000m to civilian aircraft. The market could soon be worth trillions of yuan.
Li Jiaxiang, director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said Thursday that China will reform its air space management system during the 12th Five-Year Plan period from 2011 to 2015.
However, insiders are concerned that the cooperation with foreign producers will face barriers owing to high entry costs for aircraft management, as well as the lengthy government approval procedures.
"It will take a long time for those companies to get different certifications, for production for instance,"said Ke Yubao, director of Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association of China.