First Chinese Airbus Due for Delivery

The first Airbus A320 off the new Chinese production line is due for delivery to its owners in late June, after successful flight-testing in May. Dragon Aviation Leasing owns the aircraft and will be managing it on behalf of Sichuan Airlines.

The Chinese assembly plant is a vitual carbon-copy of Airbus’s Hamburg facility and is scheduled to be producing four aircraft a month by the end of 2011, with ten airframes expected to be completed this year. Hamburg currently turns out ten competed A320-family airframes each month.

When questioned by jounalists at the recent Airbus Innovation Days as to whether the establishment of the Chinese plant could be viewed as “selling the family silver”, Airbus CEO Tom Enders responded by pointing out that the huge Chinese demand for commercial jet airliners meant that failure to participate co-operatively in China would inevitably mean the loss of a substantial share of the global airliner market. While currently holding about 39% of the Chinese airliner market, Airbus intends to capture 50% within the next three years. Airbus retains 51% ownership of the Chinese plant, while the remaining 49% is held by a Chinese consortium.

China is one of the few areas that has been relatively unaffected by the worldwide economic downturn, with passenger traffic and aircraft demand exploding. Success with the co-operative Chinese venture will add further stability to Airbus which, like its competitor Boeing, has a strong order backlog on the books to help cushion it from short-term slumps in demand and new orders.