While construction is underway for a permanent maintenance space for Goodrich's Aerostructures business, the firm yesterday opened a temporary location at Tianjin Airport Industrial Park outside of Beijing.

Both the 50,000-sq-ft (15,240-sq-m) interim facility and the permanent site will be used for nacelle and thrust reverser maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), and to support engine build-up and podding work for the Airbus A320 family final assembly line in Tianjin.

"We will be able to provide Airbus with complete engine assemblies ready for installation on their new A320 aircraft assembled in Tianjin. And we will supplement our existing MRO footprint in Asia, currently centered in Singapore, to better support customers in fast-growing China," Goodrich Aerostructures president Greg Peters says in a statement.

The permanent, 170,000 sq-ft facility will open directly across from the Airbus Tianjin final assembly plant during the fourth quarter of 2010.

Both the interim and final facility will also serve as headquarters for Goodrich's supply chain activities in China.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news