Airbus is preparing to ship sections for the first Chinese-built A320 to the assembly line in Tianjin, with production scheduled to begin in August this year.
All the major components for the Chinese line will be transported by container ship via the existing final assembly line (FAL) in Finkenwerder, Hamburg, which will be the “virtual first assembly station” for Tianjin, says Airbus A320 family programme chief Alain Flourens.
“On 24 June we shall send from the Finkenwerder the first components – fuselage, wing and empennage – to the Chinese FAL. Assembly will begin on 18 August,” says Flourens.
The aircraft sections, on transportation jigs will go by barge from the Finkenwerder factory to the Hamburg container port where they will be loaded directly onto the container ship for transportation to the port of Tianjin. From here they will make a 20km (12 miles) journey by road to the Tianjin Airbus facility.
The Chinese FAL building, which is already completed, is a “copy and paste of the Hamburg one in order to have the same processes, documentation and so on”, says Flourens. It will be able to produce both the A319 and A320, he adds.
The first Chinese delivery – to Sichuan Airlines – is scheduled to take place in June next year, and Tianjin production will eventually expand to four aircraft a month. The long lead time from assembly start to first delivery is required as “the jigs and the processes have to be qualified locally”, says Flourens.
While the FAL is a joint venture, the delivery centre is an all-Airbus affair, says Flourens: “Once the aircraft is ready for delivery it will be handed over to the newly built Airbus delivery centre, which will make all the relationships with the customer.”
A320 family output is due to reach 40 a month in 2010, of which four will be built in China, 14 in Toulouse and 22 in Hamburg, says Flourens.
He adds that the current level of orders from Chinese airlines exceeds the Tianjin FAL’s capability, so the balance will be provided by the Toulouse and Hamburg lines.
While Tianjin could produce up to seven aircraft a month with minor adaptations “but today it is not planned to go above four”, says Flourens.
Source: Flight International
