Airbus is expanding its production capacity in China. In Tianjin, there will be a second assembly line for the A320neo family, in addition to the existing line. A contract was signed in Beijing on Thursday during the visit of French President Macron to China. Chinese president Xi Jinping was also present at the signing.
Airbus has been assembling aircraft in Tianjin since 2008. Until last month, these were only A320ceos and A320neos, but the line was made suitable for the A321neo last year. The first copy was recently delivered to Juneyao Airlines.
With the addition of a second line, Airbus will have even more production capacity for the A320neo family. It has four assembly lines in Hamburg, two in Toulouse for the A320neo and one in Mobile, Alabama. One of the A320 lines in Toulouse will close, but this will be replaced by the new A321neo line in the complex where the A380 was built until the end of 2020. In Mobile, a second combined A320/A321neo line will be added in late 2024/early 2025. The additional line in Tianjin should be completed by the end of 2025. This means that Airbus has ten assembly lines for the A320neo family, which should be sufficient to be able to build 75 aircraft per month from the end of 2026.
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury also signed a contract with China Aviation Supplies Holding Company for 160 aircraft today. It concerns 150 A320neo family aircraft and ten A350-900s, for which orders were previously concluded with Chinese airlines. The agreements in the so-called General Terms Agreement stipulate how the aircraft are distributed among the various airlines. Last July, China Eastern, China Southern and Air China signed orders for nearly 300 Airbus.
