Two brand new made-in-China feeder planes, the Xinzhou-60, were handed over to Air Zimbabwe on April 23 in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province. This signified the first time China's newly made Xinzhou-60 was entering the international market.

Experts at the China Aviation Industry Corporation said that these two planes' smooth entry into the global aircraft market ended China's feeder planes being confined to flying domestic routes and was the first important step towards the realization of large-scale exports of Chinese aircraft.

Experts said that the Xinzhou-60 was designed, produced, tested and certified strictly according to international standards. The plane used Canadian firm Pratt & Whitney's advanced engines and US firm Hamiltan Sundstrand's 100% composite propeller, greatly reducing noise and fuel consumption. The Xinzhou-60 reaches or nears the level of the world's comparable planes in safety, economy, comfort and ease of maintenance, but is priced at two-thirds of the going rate of comparable aircraft and its direct operating costs are as low as 10% to 20% as those of foreign aircraft.

(Chinanews April 25, 2005)