The Europe-based aircraft mogul Airbus signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on safety cooperation with the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC)today.

The MOU covers a five-year cooperation program in the areas of rules and regulations training for Chinese aviation authorities, aviation research institutes and colleges and maintenance support for airlines.

The program also includes a "train the trainer" scheme for Chinese teachers on aviation technology and industry.

This MOU follows an earlier Safety Cooperation Agreement that was signed in 2002.

The MOU was signed by Airbus President and CEO Tom Enders and Li Jiaxiang, head of CAAC.

"Hundreds of millions of people fly on Airbus aircraft every year, and their safety is our top priority", said Tom Enders at the signing ceremony.

"Within this unique partnership, regulators, operators and Airbus, as manufacturer, work closely together to enhance the safety standards in Chinese civil aviation even further. We are proud to continue the sharing of our experiences together between CAAC and Airbus. With the signature of today's agreement, the cooperation between Airbus and its Chinese partners will be an enhanced and continuous action."

With the common understanding that civil aviation safety is of paramount importance and taking into account the quickly growing Chinese aviation industry as well as the shortage of highly skilled resources, Airbus and CAAC have set the common objective to further improve the level of aviation safety in China.

In addition, this could also help increase the eco-efficiency of the sector, since optimizing route management, for example, would allow for important fuel cost and therefore emissions reduction.

Airbus and CAAC have already developed and launched various programs and projects, which have contributed to improving the safety of aircraft operation, inspectors' training, maintenance enhancement and aircraft fleet standardization since 2002 when the cooperation first started.