A completion centre for the A330 jet will complement Airbus' sites in Tianjin as the company battles Boeing for the Chinese market.
ADVERTISEMENTAirbus has inaugurated its first wide-body jet faciliity outside Europe, opening a completion centre in China in a bid to capitalise on an aviation market that’s set to become the world’s biggest within a decade.
Europe’s largest aerospace firm on Wednesday opened the doors to the €160 million euro site in Tianjin, a town on the outskirts of Beijing which already has an assembly plant for the single-aisle A319 and A320 jets.
Meet the faces behind our freshly opened Tianjin Completion and Delivery Centre. pic.twitter.com/IBU3EK9FSK
— Airbus (@Airbus) September 20, 2017
The completion site, however, will be charged with putting the finishing touches on the much larger A330 planes, installing cabins and giving them a final lick of paint before they take to the skies.
Both Airbus and Boeing are chasing billions in potential orders by moving parts of their manufacturing supply chains to China, a country the US firm estimates will require $1.1 trillion worth of aircraft over the next twenty years.
The first A330 off the new line will go to Tianjin Airlines and by this time next year, the new facility aims to be rolling out two new planes a month.