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China-assembled A320 test flight successful

— Photo: Xinhua

Quality, performance: The Airbus A320 plane takes off from Binhai International Airport during a test flight in Tianjin on Monday. .

TIANJIN: After four hours of successful test flight, the first China-assembled Airbus A320 aircraft landed smoothly at Tianjin Binhai International Airport at 2.56 p.m. on Monday. The aircraft will be delivered to Dragon Aviation Leasing in June from the Airbus Delivery Centre in Tianjin and will be operated by Sichuan Airlines.

“I am confident that the plane will be delivered to Sichuan Airlines by the end of June as scheduled,” said Jean Luc Charles, General Manager of the Airbus (Tianjin) Final Assembly Line Co. Ltd. (FALC), after the test flight. He also said the A320 assembled in China demonstrated the same quality and performance as those assembled and delivered from Hamburg or Toulouse, the other two Airbus assembly lines.

FALC is a joint-venture between Airbus and a Chinese consortium comprising Tianjin Free Trade Zone and China Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC). Airbus China holds 51 per cent stake in the venture, while the Chinese consortium holds 49 per cent. The Tianjin assembly line will deliver two types of aircraft from the A320 family — the A319 and the A320. The A320 family, which includes the A318, A319, A320 and A321, is recognised as the benchmark in the single-aisle aircraft family. “China has become more involved in the world’s aviation industry,” said professor Li Yanhua from the Civil Aviation University of China, citing the huge market potential which has lured world’s aircraft giants such as Boeing and Airbus.

The Tianjin assembly line is expected to deliver 11 A320 aircraft this year. From 2011, the company will be able to produce 48 A320 planes every year, according to Mr. Jean Luc Charles. “With the final assembly line here in Tianjin, we deepen and expand our industrial relationship, which is a key pillar of the internationalisation strategy of Airbus,” said Mr. Charles. According to a report by the Tianjin Airport-based Industrial Zone, China has become the world’s second largest aviation market after the United States. The country is estimated to need 2,670 passenger planes in the next 20 years. The Airbus company estimates that China would need more than 3,000 aircraft between 2006 and 2025, including 180 super jumbo passenger planes.

In addition to the Tianjin assembly line, Airbus purchased $70 million worth of high quality components and materials from Chinese companies in 2007 alone. Boeing and Airbus currently dominate the world’s airplane market and only manufacturers in the U.S., Europe and Russia own the technologies to build such planes. China, however, is actively developing such technologies. The country set up its first ever jumbo passenger aircraft company in Shanghai in May 2008, taking a major step forward in its large jet programme. Analysts believe China would play a bigger role in the world’s aviation industry with the Tianjin line in operation, as final assembly lines stand for a core competitiveness of aviation manufacturers. “China is an important — and increasingly important — part of the global aviation family,” Mr. Charles told Xinhua. — Xinhua

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