Airbus begins A350 deliveries in China.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Toulouse and Hamburg is the only assembly lines of the aircraft manufacturer, since Airbus is a European company. However, the major plane-maker has five assembly lines throughout the world, including China’s Tianjin.
Airbus has delivered the first A350 from its widebody Completion & Delivery Centre (C&DC) in Tianjin. The A350 was delivered to China Eastern Airlines, the largest Airbus operator in Asia and second largest in the world.
The C&DC is located at the same site as the Airbus Tianjin A320 Family Final Assembly Line and the Airbus Tianjin Delivery Centre. It was inaugurated in September 2017, and was designed to allow the delivery in Asia of medium haul aircrafts like the A330. The wide-body C&DC activities include cabin installation, aircraft painting, test flights, customer flight acceptance and aircraft delivery.
“I’m proud that Airbus successfully extended the capability of the widebody C&DC in Tianjin to the A350, the latest new generation aircraft, at such a difficult time of global aviation. This is a new milestone in the long-term cooperation between China and Airbus, which further demonstrates Airbus’ commitment to the country.” reported George Xu, Airbus executive vice president and Airbus China CEO.