China as a new competitor on the global market of civil aircraft

Abstract

This paper deals with the Chinese aviation industry and its current state, and the main goal of this paper is to find out whether China, in terms of its position, can compete with the current Airbus-Boeing duopoly in the coming years on the large civil aircraft market, while it also aims to set possible scenarios of the development of the large civil aircraft market. The paper approaches the matter through the historical development and the current state of the large civil aircraft market to find out whether there is any perspective and chance for a new competitor to succeed, and the Chinese aviation industry, which allows a better understanding of the problems that China faces in the production of large civil aircraft. In the third chapter, a comparative method is used and its result is the determination of the competitiveness of large civil aircraft produced by China in comparison with those produced by European and American manufacturers, while it also points out their strengths, weaknesses and potential customers. In the last chapter of the paper, the “Compound Annual Growth Rate” method is used along with findings gained from pervious chapters in order to determine possible development scenarios of the large civil aircraft market regarding the position of China. While determining the scenarios, the current and possible future geopolitical situation, political relations of China and the resulting factors with the potential of affecting the Chinese aviation industry were taken into account. This paper also points out China’s biggest problem, due to which, despite the enormous effort, it has not yet entered the market of large civil aircraft, with the problem being the dependence on foreign aviation technologies caused by the lack of expertise and experience stemming mainly from the historical development of the Chinese aviation industry. The paper also points out that, despite the slow development of the Chinese aviation industry, the entrance of China to the large civil aircraft market is only a matter of time. The results of paper about diploma thesis can be used to help to decide what threat China does pose to the Airbus-Boeing duopoly.