UK-based Gardner Aerospace said it has opened a new factory in China to meet growing demand in the Asia-Pacific region. The company is a supplier of components to manufacturers including Airbus and Rolls-Royce Holdings. The company said China’s large and growing aviation market is helping it expand production around the world and supporting jobs across the UK supply chain. Production is expected to begin this year and several UK staffers have been based at the Chengdu site since August.
Gardner went through a major restructuring in 2020 with dozens of redundancies at some of its UK operations. It blamed a major slump in the aerospace sector on the coronavirus lockdown. The business said China now accounts for almost a third of global demand for new aircraft, with the country’s growing middle-class fuelling a boom in the travel sector.
James Males, general manager of Gardner Aerospace China in Chengdu, said that was shown by the millions of people who will travel as part of the annual homecoming for Chinese New Year. “When I started my career in aerospace in the 1980s, North America accounted for more than 70 percent of the aerospace market; now China is where it’s at. There’s around 1.4 billion people in China and every year more and more people are travelling by air that’s a huge opportunity for us.” Gardner Aerospace employs more than 1,500 people around the world, including in the UK, China, France, Poland and India.
For Editorial Inquiries Contact:
Editor Matt Driskill at matt.driskill@asianaviation.com
For Advertising Inquiries Contact:
Head of Sales Kay Rolland at kay.rolland@asianaviation.com
