Tianjin A320 Final Assembly Line To Be Extended For Another 10 Years

Airbus and China have laid the foundation for taking their cooperative efforts into the future as relevant agreements have been signed in Paris by Fabrice Brégier, Airbus President and CEO, and the Chinese parties, witnessed by the French President Francois Hollande and visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping. In parallel, China Aviation Supplies Holding Company (CAS) and Airbus have also signed a General Terms Agreement (GTA) for the purchase of a total of 70 Airbus aircraft.

According to the agreements, Airbus will strengthen its cooperation with Chinese aviation industry in various fields, which include promoting Tianjin as an Asian Centre for Airbus and upgrading industrial cooperation in both scale and level.

Airbus and its Chinese partners Tianjin Free Trade Zone and Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), have agreed to extend the successful Joint Venture to assemble A320 Family aircraft in China (FALC project) for an additional 10 years. The “phase II” will cover the period from 2016 to 2025, expand deliveries to the whole Asian region and include final assembly of the A320neo Family from 2017 onwards. During Phase II, capabilities of the Tianjin Final Assembly Line will be extended.  Airbus and the Chinese parties will jointly invite more major component suppliers to develop industrial projects in Tianjin, in order to support the development of the FALC and the formation of a competitive supply chain.

To accommodate the strong growth of the Chinese aviation, which is growing much faster than the world average, and to ensure its sustainability, the future partnership is also designed to focus on alleviating these challenges by launching two other areas of cooperation; supporting the CAAC with the latest state of the art Air Traffic Management (ATM) in order to boost the capacity of Chinese airspace, and driving research into regional sustainable jet fuel and other initiatives in order to reduce the Chinese aviation environmental footprint.

The two parties will also develop cooperation activities on Airbus wide-body programs. Airbus and relevant Chinese parties will work towards demonstrating the interest of setting up a wide-body aircraft completion center in China, which includes cooperation on wide-body cabin interiors with AVIC.

Among the total of 70 Airbus aircraft ordered by CAS, there are 43 A320 Family aircraft and 27 A330 aircraft, reflecting the strong demand of Chinese airlines in all segments of the market, including domestic, low cost, regional and international long haul markets.

“We are going to celebrate 30 years of successful cooperation with our Chinese partners next year and I am proud that today we are strengthening the foundation for extending our successful cooperation into the future,” said Fabrice Bregier, Airbus President and CEO. “Our partnership with China, the mutual benefits we’ve explored, have been instrumental in furthering our global strategy, and we are honored to have China as an essential pillar in our global setup. We are looking forward to providing top performing aircraft from our Chinese assembly lines for many years to come.”

FMI: www.airbus.com