| Test flight of first Airbus plane will be carried out next month and it will be delivered to airlines at the end of June. Before the end of this year, the number of Airbus planes delivered by The Tianjin Airbus Assembly Factory for service will rise to 11.
The sight of the final assembly factory building is in the Linkong Industrial District of Tianjin Binhai New Area, where the assembly of four large passenger planes is being carried out. The assembly of the fourth plane and seventh plane which will “come into the world” in Tianjin is being nervously carried out.Moreover, the assembly of the plane tail with the China Eastern Airlines logo on the fourth plane has been finished.
At present, spray painting and installation of engines of first Airbus plane has been finished. Test on engines, gasoline tanks and auxiliary power unit will be carried out in early May, test flight will be conducted in late May, and the plane will be delivered to Sichuan Airlines for operation through Dragon Aviation Leasing Company at the end of June. The spray painting of a second plane also has been finished and the assembly of engines will be carried out today. After full completion of assembly, the second plane will be leased to Hainan Airlines for operation. The third plane is waiting to be painted at present.
On April 17, parts from the eighth plane were delivered to the factory building of Tianjin Airbus. Till the end of this year, Tianjin Airbus Assembly Factory will finish the assembly of 11 Airbus planes and deliver these planes for use. At present, the second runway of the airport is under construction. The second runway with total length of 3,200 meters is expected to be put into service on May 1 to meet the requirements of the first Airbus plane’s test flight.
Airbus Tianjin assembling line factory area, which occupies 600,000 square meters, is composed of 7 sub-projects and 19 single buildings. At present, except for the flight line, all the other building projects have been finished. At the end of this year, all construction projects of factory area will be finished. It is expected that Tianjin Airbus Assembly Factory will be provided with monthly production capacity of 4 planes. Annual production capacity of 48 planes is expected at the end of the year 2011. Tianjin Airbus Assembly Factory has 420 employees in total, in which 110 employees come from foreign countries. It is expected that employees in the factory will rise to 500 in 2010.
The global economic crisis does not have a wide range of influence on China’s aircraft industry. Up to present, no circumstance of canceling order for planes happens within China. Some orders for 2,000 planes received from all parts of the world are distributed to the Tianjin factory for production. Airbus planes made in China are mainly supplied for the use of Chinese airlines and may be provided to countries in surrounding areas. |
