General aviation joint venture between AVIC and Textron Aviation delivered first product

Cessna-AVIC Co Ltd, a joint venture between AVIC and Textron Aviation, a general aviation manufacturer owning the Beechcraft, Cessna and Hawker brands, delivered its first Citation XLS+ aircraft on Tuesday in Zhuhai.

The aircraft with 12 seats will be delivered to an operator in Guangzhou and in the current stage, the green aircraft will be flown to China to complete painting in the joint venture.

The two partners will still keep investing in the joint venture, including facilities and employee training in the past year, said Bill Schultz, senior vice president of business development of Textron Aviation in China.

Textron Aviation also announced that its two aircraft models, including the Citation X+ and Citation Sovereign +, will get certifications from the Civil Aviation Administration of China in 2015.

The company will add two company-owned service centers in China in the next year. It is considering expansion of its officially authored service centers in China, as well.