China is expected to become the world's second largest aviation market after the United States in the next two decades, a senior Airbus official has predicted, quoting by Saturday's Economic Information Daily.

Laurence Barron, chief executive of the Airbus China Corp, said that Airbus may deliver nearly 1,800 airplanes to China in the next 20 years, an average of 90 airplanes a year, accounting for 11 percent of the total airplanes ordered by global customers. With the rapid growth of the aviation market, Barron said China will need at least 200 big

airplanes over the next two decades, such as the long-haul super jumbo Airbus A380, whose catalog price for each is 275 million US dollars. 

(Xinhua News Agency July 4, 2005)