To keep up with renewed demand for planes, Boeing plans to double the number of employees at its parts factory in northern China, the China Daily newspaper said on August 26.
Boeing Tianjin Composites Co Ltd will increase its workforce to 1,200 in the next three to four years, Boeing China president David Wang was quoted by the China Daily newspaper as saying.
"We have to enlarge the place because the needs of commercial airlines is growing fast," Wang said.
The factory -- a joint venture between Boeing and China Aviation Industry Corp -- makes composite secondary structures and interior parts for the B737, B747, B767, B777 and the B787 Dreamliner aircraft, the report said.
The expansion comes amid growing signs the airline industry is recovering from the slump triggered by the global financial crisis.
Boeing and its European rival Airbus won 237 orders worth $28 billion at last month's Farnborough Air Show in Britain, the report said.
International air travel also grew faster than expected in June led by a sharp improvement in Asia, the International Air Transport Association said in July. Passenger volumes returned to a level one to two percent above the pre-recession peak in the first quarter of 2008, the airline association said in its monthly account of air travel.
China drove growth in the Asia Pacific region, which recorded the most significant improvement in demand last month. The country's air passenger traffic is expected to rise 13% year-on-year in 2010 to 260 million passengers, while cargo volume will grow 12% to 4.98 million tons, according to official forecasts.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2010