European aircraft producer Airbus has authorized a Shenzhen company to be its first maintenance center in Asia.

Lufthansa Technik Shenzhen Co. Ltd. (LTS), in south China's Guangdong Province, will provide repair and overhaul services in line with Airbus' requirements, according to an agreement signed by the two companies.

The Shenzhen company has started serving Chinese Airbus operators, helping to cut costs and increase efficiency as they no longer need to send aircraft parts all the way to Europe for repair.

It is also expected to provide maintenance services to other customers in the Asia-Pacific region.

The company received approval from Airbus and the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to join the Airbus Spares repair station network in mid June this year.

Airbus is trying to set up a comprehensive after-sales service network in China. It has built customer service and technical support stations in 20 cities.

In 1997, it invested 80 million U.S. dollars in an advanced training center in Beijing to help domestic airlines train more than 14,000 pilots, crew members and maintenance technicians.

China's northern port city Tianjin was selected as the first Airbus overseas assembly plant this year and is expected to turn out its first aircraft at the end of 2008.

Airbus announced last year that it would renew cooperation with the China Aviation Suppliers Import and Export Group on training and support services for another 20 years.

(Xinhua News Agency December 14, 2007)