Chinese airliners were scrambling to line up leased aircraft to make up for the lost capacity, the report said. Major foreign purchases by China frequently involve lengthy and complex negotiations and can be affected by politics. Beijing has on occasion revoked deals to punish governments for dealings with rival Taiwan or other actions. The signing of contracts to buy jetliners and other big-ticket items is sometimes timed to coincide with meetings with foreign leaders. Aircraft makers regard China as one of the world's most promising markets, but turmoil in the industry has made sales prospects uncertain.
Chinese airlines suffer from a glut of overcapacity that threatened several with bankruptcy.
They are under government pressure to improve their competitiveness through a series of mergers, which would cut the number of potential aircraft buyers. Boeing signed contracts last year to sell Chinese carriers nine jetliners, and this year sold two 747-400 jumbo jet freighters to China Southern, according to Hooper. Read the SunSpot.net User Agreement for our policies on copyright, reader privacy and bulletin boards. Powered by Genuity.