AIRBUS has begun to get orders from customers based in the Chinese mainland and is expecting more in this year, a senior member of the aviation giant's management said.
"China has been leading the world in economic growth in recent years and this economic growth is driving growth in air travels," said David Velupillai, the marketing director of Airbus' executive and private aviation department.
Velupillai said that Airbus was expecting China's mainland, Hong Kong and Macau would contribute 15 of the 75 orders it might be getting from the Asia Pacific region.
The potential economic downturn might affect Airbus' performance in the United States but not its sales globally, as emerging markets were growing, he said.
Francois Chazelle, who heads Airbus' executive and private aviation team, acknowledged it was receiving orders from the Chinese mainland, which he said was a sign that the potential of the growing economy in private aviation was being unleashed.
He declined, however, to predict the number of orders Airbus was hoping to get from China's mainland, saying that it was hard to break down the orders because some of the orders by the customers from the mainland were placed via Hong Kong.
Airbus was currently producing three families of corporate jetliners, namely A320, the larger A330/340/350 and the superjumbo A380.