China's Xian Aircraft Industry is now sole supplier of wings to Airbus's A320 final assembly line in Tianjin.
Sharing of expertise from Airbus's UK wing factory, in Broughton, has facilitated the build-up of A319/A320 wing production capability for A319s and A320s at the AVIC subsidiary.
After starting with system installation on UK-made wings in 2009, Xian Aircraft progressed to producing certain wing structures. The components were shipped to Broughton for integration with the remaining structure and then ferried back to China for system installation and final aircraft assembly. Later, Xian Aircraft began manufacturing entire wing boxes.
"Since this summer, all wings for the FAL [final assembly line] in Tianjin are supplied by XAIC," says Airbus.
The facility is producing four A320-family aircraft a month, while the manufacturer's other two assembly lines in Toulouse and Hamburg deliver another 38 units.
Total monthly output is to be raised to 46 narrowbodies by the second quarter of 2016.
The 200th A320-family shipset (fuselage plus empennage) for the Tianjin final assembly line was sent from Hamburg to China on a regular cargo ship at the end of July.
Production at the Tianjin site began in 2008.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
