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Airbus’ final assembly line at its Tianjin, China, factory is scheduled to deliver its 100th A320 this fall but the manufacturer has yet to secure a partner for its continued operation past 2016.
“We [have] already delivered 89 aircraft since our first one on June 23, 2009,” Airbus president-China Laurence Barron told journalists in Beijing this week. This year, 38 aircraft will be delivered—including the first one to a non-Chinese airline, AirAsia. “Our target is to deliver four aircraft per month and a total of 47 aircraft in 2013,” Barron said.
However, the Tianjin factory—a joint venture between Airbus and partners including China Aviation Industry Corps. (AVIC I and II) and Tianjin Free Trade Zone—faces an uncertain future in 2016 when its contract expires after the delivery of its 284th aircraft. The factory opened in September 2008; as of March, Airbus had delivered 80 A320 family airliners assembled in Tianjin.
“This year, the company will breakeven, Barron said, adding the manufacturer has started talks with its partners about the factory’s future. “We will wait and see what happens,” he said.
As the Chinese market continues to grow, Barron said mainlandChina has become the world’s second market for new aircraft deliveries after the US. “And it is getting close to number one. Mainland China will need 3,832 new passenger and freighter aircraft over the next 20 years, which is a market value of $509 billion—a very significant market for us,” he said.
Chinese carriers operate 805 Airbus aircraft in China. The European manufacturer has 15 Chinese customers and orders for 356 aircraft, mainly A320s. However, Barron said Airbus is seeing a demand for very large aircraft, such as the A380, but so far China Southern is the only Chinese carrier to order the type.
The A330 is becoming popular with Chinese carriers, which have around 100 of the type in service and 71 orders. Barron told ATW there are no plans to produce the A330 in China.
The Chinese government has blocked 45 A330 orders for Chinese carriers because of the escalating dispute over the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme carbon tax.
