Airbus Announces Doubling of its Capacity in China as Macron Visits

Airbus is doubling its production capacity in China with the announcement on Thursday of a second, final assembly line for its highly sought-after medium-haul jets.

Source dpa (TNS)

April 7, 2023

2 min read

Beijing — Airbus, the world's largest aircraft manufacturer, is doubling its production capacity in China with the announcement on Thursday of a second, final assembly line for its highly sought-after medium-haul jets.

Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury signed a contract to this effect during the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Beijing.

According to the agreement, a second assembly line will be added to the existing Airbus plant in Tianjin, south-east of Beijing, thereby doubling its production capacity in China.

The plan is for jets from the A320neo family, the world's best-selling aircraft type, to be built there. Airbus opened its plant in Tianjin in 2008.

Airbus builds these jets at four locations around the world, with its largest production site in the northern German city of Hamburg. The company is also planning a second A320neo line in Mobile in the US state of Alabama.

Together with the two future lines in Tianjin, this will make 10 production sites worldwide.

With its order books full to bursting, Airbus has been struggling to keep up with production. Last year, the manufacturer missed its already capped delivery target, partly because of a shortage of key parts suppliers and labour.

For 2023, Faury recently anticipated continued bottlenecks. By 2026, the group wants to ramp up production of the A320neo family to a record level of 75 aircraft per month.

China is an important market for the European manufacturer: Last year, Chinese airlines ordered more than 300 Airbus jets.