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Airbus to deliver first Tianjin A350 by 2021
November 8th 2019
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Airbus Tianjin plans to add a new aircraft type to its Mainland output with A350 XWBs to be furnished, painted and delivered from the Airbus facility in the northern Chinese city.
The first A350 out of Tianjin will be delivered by 2021 per a Memorandum of Understanding witnesses by French president, Emmanuel Macron, and Chinese president, Xi Jinping, during the French leader’s state visit to China this week.
The A350 work will be carried out at the Airbus Tianjin wide-body Completion and Delivery Centre, which already handles A330 work including painting, cabin furnishing, test flights and delivery. The aircraft arrive in Tianjin from Toulouse assembled but unpainted and without interior fit outs.
By comparison, Airbus’s A320s undergo final assembly as well as outfitting and painting in Tianjin. The Airbus Tianjin A320 Final Assembly Line (FAL) expects to increase monthly production from four to six aircraft by year end.
The expansion of its Mainland facilities is part of the manufacturer’s global plan to produce 63 A320 family aircraft a month in 2021. Airbus has FAL in Toulouse, Hamburg and Mobile, Alabama. The A330 and A350 completion centre in Tianjin is the only Airbus facility to conduct wide-body work outside Europe.
After Airbus CEO, Guillame Faury, returned to Toulouse from Beijing this week, the company announced its chief procurement officer, Klaus Richter, was stepping down “to pursue other professional challenges”. Airbus is seeking a replacement to head its US$50 billion supply chain business. Head of Airbus operations in China, Francois Mery, has been appointed interim chief procurement officer.
