Airbus is studying if it could assemble more parts of the A320 in China and increase the number of parts it sources from the country.
Xian Aircraft, a subsidiary of state-owned airframer Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), currently assembles the A320's wings in Tianjin, where Airbus has a final assembly centre for the narrowbody.
Other AVIC subsidiaries also produce components such as the rear passenger door, cargo doors, emergency exit doors, electronic bay doors, part of the nose section, fixed leading edges, wing inter-spar ribs, skin plates and fixed trailing edges on wings, according to the Airbus China website.
Some of these are shipped back to Europe for assembly and it may make "more sense" to do some of that work in China, says Airbus China president Laurence Barron.
"We are looking to see if it makes sense to assemble some more parts here and install them in Tianjin instead of shipping them to Europe and then bringing them back here," he adds.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
