Airbus expects China will need up to 3,000 large new aircraft, classified as having 100 seats or more, over the next 20 years, the company’s chief executive Thomas Enders said.

In April this year, Airbus forecast that China would need about 2,800 new passenger aircraft and freighters from 2007 to 2026, worth around 329 bln usd.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Tianjin, Enders said he was hopeful the aircraft industry would weather the turmoil currently engulfing the world's financial markets.

"Aircraft and other tangible assets are real assets and people tend to invest in real tangible assets rather than into artificial and sometimes highly complex financial structures," he said.

Tomorrow Airbus will formally open a final assembly line in Tianjin, a municipality roughly 100 kilometers southeast of Beijing. It will be the company's first final assembly line outside of Europe.

"We are here (in China) for the long term," Enders said.