JNN 22 July 2011 : Aircraft manufacturing giant Boeing has voiced concern over the prospect of China’s rapidly developing civilian aircraft industry making competitive sales.

“They are improving all the time, [they are] making huge investments,” said head of Boeing’s commercial aircraft operations Jim Albaugh; it would “probably be sooner than anyone thinks … [for the Chinese] to make their first competitive sale,” he added.
Albaugh made the statements on Sunday at a briefing ahead of the Paris International Air Show where he told reporters that Boeing was constantly making efforts to remain ahead of new competitors like China and Brazil.

“We are assuming that some [of the new competitors] will be successful … we are taking them very, very seriously;” he stated at the briefing, adding that “Boeing must make sure that we are building tomorrow’s plane while they are building today’s … we have to maintain that [technological] edge.”

Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (Comac) will be making its first appearance at the Paris air show which will begin on Monday.

Comac will be displaying its 190-seat C919 model which aims to compete in the medium-size aircraft market dominated by Boeing’s B737 and Airbus’ A320.