Moreover, Chinese financial service companies have emerged into a rising star in the global aircraft financing market as liquidity in the US and Europe was reduced during the global economic crisis.

Airbus' archrival Boeing set up a maintenance, repair and overhaul joint venture in Shanghai in 2006. Boeing holds a 60-percent-stake in the company, while Shanghai Airport Authority and Shanghai Airlines hold 25 and 15 percent stakes respectively.

China is becoming the fastest growing maintenance, repair and overhaul market in Asia due to Chinese airlines' fleet expansion and US and European carriers' increasing tendency to outsource aircraft maintenance services to low-cost providers.

Since delivering its first aircraft to China in 1985, Airbus has built four joint ventures in the country, including the A320 final assembly line in Tianjin, a composite material manufacturing center in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, an engineering center in Beijing that designs parts for the A350 aircraft, and a pilot and engineer training center in Beijing.

The factory in Tianjin, Airbus' first aircraft final assembly line outside Europe, delivered its first A320 to Sichuan Airlines one year ago. So far it has delivered 22 airplanes to seven Chinese airlines. It will ramp up production to four jets a month in 2012.

The final assembly line is 51 percent owned by Airbus, with the remainder held by a Chinese consortium comprised of the Tianjin Free Trade Zone and the China Aviation Industry Corp.

Barron said the European debt crisis would have a limited impact on China's aviation industry as the Chinese market is largely driven by domestic demand.

"I am more optimistic about China than one year ago when everybody was worried about the global economic crisis," Barron said.