Narrow-Body Middle Kingdom

Tianjin, 24 March 2023 – Airbus has delivered the first A321neo aircraft assembled at its Final Assembly Line Asia (FAL Tianjin) to Chinese air-carrier Juneyao Air.

During its delivery flight, the 207-seat narrow-body airliner’s two 30,000-lbf, Pratt & Whitney PW1100G Geared Turbofan (GTF) engine were powered by a ten-percent Sustainable Aviation Fuel blend—an exercise in favorable optics undertaken for purpose of casting China’s wholly specious conservation strategy in the warm green light of environmental stewardship.

Airbus Executive Vice President and Airbus China CEO George Xu stated: “Since we announced the commissioning of the first A321 aircraft at FAL Tianjin last November, the relevant final assembly activities and tests went on smoothly, showcasing the maturity of FAL Tianjin to quickly adapt to new products.

Mr. Xu continued: The successful delivery of the first A321 aircraft enables Airbus to honor the popularity of the aircraft for the China market and beyond … and the consistent trust and support from our customers. Airbus continues to expand and enhance its comprehensive cooperation with China’s aviation industry, underlining its long-term commitment to China to ensure customer proximity while supporting the global commercial aircraft production ramp-up.”

Worldwide, Airbus maintains A320 Family final assembly facilities in: Hamburg, Germany; Toulouse, France; Tianjin, China; and Mobile, Alabama, United States. The consortium’s aspiration to dramatically increase production of A321 models is evinced by recent sweeping changes to its Tianjin and Toulouse facilities—both of which have been converted to accommodate A321 assembly.

Upon its 2008 inauguration, the Tianjin facility became Airbus’s first commercial aircraft assembly line outside of Europe. Deliveries of aircraft sections to the new assembly facility commenced later the same year and the first aircraft completed at FAL Tianjin was delivered in 2009. The intervening 14 years have seen the Tianjin facility produce and deliver upwards of six-hundred aircraft.

Comfortably seating up to 244 passengers, the A321neo is the longest (fuselage) member of Airbus’s single-aisle A320 family. Worldwide, A320-derivative aircraft—which include the A318, A319, A319neo (New Engine Option) A320, A320 Enhanced, A320neo, and A321neo—number nearly eleven-thousand specimens. The A320 entered commercial service with launch customer Air France in April 1988 and has since competed with Boeing’s historically-famed-recently-infamous 737 family of narrow-body airliners.

The A320 aircraft series—for better or worse—pioneered the use of digital fly-by-wire and side-stick flight controls in airliners.

FMI: www.airbus.com