Harbin – 7 July 2015 – China Aircraft Leasing Group Holdings Limited (“CALC” or the “Group”, stock code: 01848.HK), the largest independent operating aircraft lessor in China, has successfully acquired by auction a 300,000 square metre of land in the Harbin Airport Economic Zone which is located next to the southern part of Harbin Taiping International Airport. The land acquisition lays a solid foundation for CALC’s aircraft disassembly business. It also marks the establishment of the world’s first newly built large-scale aircraft disassembly plant in Harbin, which is a significant step forward to realizing CALC’s long-term target to develop the facility into the world’s largest aircraft disassembly centre. 

CALC is dedicated to developing itself into a "full aircraft life-cycle solutions provider”, offering one-stop aircraft solutions to domestic and foreign airline customers via its long-term investment throughout the value chain in the aviation industry. The official launch of China Aircraft Disassembly Centre (CADC) will play a significant part of the Group’s development strategy, by extending the its value chain in China’s aviation industry, as well as promoting circular economy by meeting market demands for old aircraft handling in China as well as the global markets.  

In the past six months, CALC has actively engaged with the government and established a refined long-term marketing strategy and formulated a detailed project plan, including its three-phase construction plan for CADC, in preparation for the land acquisition. The design of plant structure and architecture has also been completed with the assistance of domestic and foreign industry experts. 

The Aircraft Disassembly Project, being one of the key industrial projects of Heilongjiang province in 2015, as well as the first aircraft disassembly centre in China, has gained great attention and strong support from Heilongjiang Provincial Government, Harbin City Government, and various levels of the local government.  Upon approval by the Harbin City Local Government and granted the right for land use, CALC will officially commence the first phase of CDAC construction, which includes the construction of the large-scale disassembly plant, temperature and humidity control warehouse for aircraft parts, special purpose vehicle garage and special item product storage, power stations and gatehouse, parking apron, tow way and a complex building. 

The Group plans to implement the project by three phases in the next 10 years in establishing the world’s largest aircraft disassembly centre in terms of capacity, aiming to achieve an annual dismantling capacity of more than 50 aircraft. In the later phases, CALC would gradually invest in the construction of aviation museum, aviation theme park, youth education centre for aviation science, aviation technical college and other affiliated projects in aviation. CADC is expected to reach an annual dismantling capacity of 20 aircraft by 2018, and will increase gradually afterwards. The dismantled aircraft parts will be sold for profit after obtaining airworthiness certification. 

Mr. Li Zhimin, Executive Vice President of CADC, said, “The successful land acquisition by auction and the commencement of the construction mark the official launch of the aircraft disassembly project in Harbin, setting another milestone for CALC’s positioning and long-term development strategy  to be the ‘full aircraft life-cycle solutions provider’. This project plays an important role for the Group in capturing the opportunities derived from the market development in the aviation sector. Chinese aviation industry is experiencing a strong growth momentum. The rapid fleet expansion of airlines resulted in an increasing number of retiring old aircraft, creating a huge market demand for aircraft disassembly industry while the markets for second-hand parts become more mature in China and other parts of Asia. Leveraging our thorough understanding of old aircraft valuation, supported by our professional engineering team and marketing team, CALC has formed a specialized aircraft disassembly team to establish and operate the project with high efficiency. We are confident to catch up with the development and scale of the international markets.”