An executive of the world leading airplane-leasing company has warned Boeing and Airbus of serious competition from commercial airplane manufacturers in China, Russia and Japan in about 15 years, a newspaper report said Wednesday.

 

Steven Udvar-Hazy, founder and CEO of the Los Angeles-based International Lease Finance Corp. which is by far Boeing's largest customer, said that such a prospect should help Boeing and Airbus shape their looming decisions over model replacement programs.

 

Hazy, whose company has more than 1,000 airplanes in its portfolio, made his comments Tuesday at the annual International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading conference in Phoenix, Arizona.

 

At the same conference last year, Hazy's devastating comments on the inadequacy of Airbus' design for the A350 led within months to the shelving of that plan and a radical redesign of the airplane, the Seattle Times reported.

 

In his latest comments, Hazy said potential airplane manufacturing capabilities in China, Russia and Japan would profoundly change the industry that has been dominated by the two western airplane makers.

 

China "has tremendous financial capabilities, tremendous technical capabilities," he said. "They have a huge home market; they have tremendous influence in the surrounding areas of Asia. If they form alliances with Western companies, they could become a formidable competitor."

 

Chinese civil aviation officials have said that the country would build its own jumbo aircraft by 2020 if everything goes well.

 

Hazy said Tuesday that Russia and Japan, both with tremendous wealth, technological strength and a huge home market, could also become significant players in the world passenger plane market in the future.

 

Boeing Chief Executive Jim McNerney told a German magazine last week that China will pose a threat in the future. His judgment was seconded Monday at the Phoenix conference by Airbus Chief Operating Officer John Leahy.

 

(Xinhua News Agency March 15, 2007)