France is home to one of the largest plane makers in the world, and has long been a key aviation partner in China. The relationship is expected to grow even stronger, as the world's second largest economy becomes the world's LARGEST aviation market. CGTN's Xu Xinchen spoke with Airbus executives and aviation experts about the prospects.

Frogleaping the United States to become the world's largest aviation market, reaching a total value of 1 trillion US dollars, that is what Airbus predicts China will become in less than 20 years.

FRANCOIS MERY, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER AIRBUS COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT CHINA "So it presents a huge opportunity for us because we are here to provide aircraft and associated services to our Chinese customers."

Some 1,500 commercial Airbus planes are already operational in China. And the company has been increasing its investments in the Chinese market for over thirty years. Its family assembly line for the best-selling A320 airplane in Tianjin can now deliver some 50 planes a year, and the facility's planes are also being sold in other Asian markets as well. A completion center for the A330 model in Tianjian, delivered its first plane in September last year.

XU XINCHEN BEIJING "In addition to airplanes, Airbus has also helped its Chinese partners train some 15,000 staff including pilots, flight attendants and maintenance workers over the past twenty years. And now, the company is increasing cooperation efforts with other Chinese firms."

FRANCOIS MERY, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER AIRBUS COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT CHINA "Today, what we are reaching with COMAC -- what we did in the past and we are about to restart-- is to work on uncompetitive domain, for example on aircraft management, market studies to study what is the impact of high speed train on civil aircraft business."

In addition, the French Civil Aviation University has teamed up with Tsinghua University to establish an Executive MBA program that specializes in aviation. Experts say, both industrial and educational cooperation is needed as China's aviation industry continues to develop.

PROFESSOR DAVID YU NYU SHANGHAI "The growth of education especially in this area is something that is definitely needed with the large growth of the market place. And it will be more skilled labors as well as skilled technicians and financiers who can help grow the market even more."

The total value of industrial cooperation between Airbus and the Chinese aviation industry has passed half a billion US dollars, and the company aims to increase its investment in China to 1 billion US dollars each year by 2020. Xu Xinchen, CGTN, Beijing.