May 26 (Reuters) – China has been delaying approval of Airbus deliveries to show impatience with European regulators’ delay in certifying China-made Comac aircraft, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has delayed final approval that would allow Airbus planes to enter the country and be put into service in recent months, the report said, citing sources familiar with the matter.
According to the report, Airbus delivered the lowest number of commercial jets since 2009 in the first quarter. Chief Executive Guillaume Faury said last month that the delay was due to an “administrative issue” that prevented the delivery of almost 20 aircraft destined for China.
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On Airbus’ April 28 earnings call, Faury said the issue had been resolved and the undelivered planes would be shipped in the second quarter.
Chief Financial Officer Thomas Toepfer said Airbus had built up around 5 billion euros ($5.82 billion) of inventories in the quarter, significantly more than a year earlier, with the disruption to deliveries in China the main factor. He said the aircraft ‘had been built and was ready, but could not be delivered.’
In January, Reuters reported that Europe’s aviation safety regulator, EASA, was carrying out test flights to evaluate Comac’s C919 plane for certification, which would allow the Chinese planemaker to market the jet to Western airlines for the first time. Currently, European and other Western airlines cannot fly Comac jets.
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In a statement, EASA stated that the C919 validation work is ‘progressing with the full cooperation of Comac and CAAC’, but added that it could not comment on the anticipated timeline for completion of the validation project.
EASA safety certification would significantly expand Comac’s global presence, as the C919 competes directly with Airbus’ A320 and Boeing’s 737.
(Reporting by Anusha Shah in Bengaluru, Julie Zhu in Hong Kong and Sophie Yu in Beijing)
