In a milestone for its facility in Tianjin, China, Airbus has delivered its first aircraft from the Final Assembly Line to Juneyao Air.
The aircraft is an Airbus A321neo that will seat eight passengers in Business Class and 199 in Economy Class, bringing a total of 207 passengers.
Such an inauguration means Tianjin joins Hamburg, Toulouse, and Mobile for more of a global spread in aircraft deliveries.
Executive Comments…
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Commenting on this significant milestone was George Xu, Airbus China’s Executive VP, and CEO:
“Since we announced the commissioning of the first A321 aircraft at FAL Tianjin last November, the relevant final assembly activities and tests went on smoothly, showcasing the maturity of FAL Tianjin to quickly adapt to new products”.
“The successful delivery of the first A321 aircraft enables Airbus to honor the popularity of the aircraft for the China market and beyond – and the consistent trust and support from our customers.”
“Airbus continues to expand and enhance its comprehensive cooperation with China’s aviation industry, underlining its long-term commitment to China to ensure customer proximity while supporting the global commercial aircraft production ramp-up.”
Tianjin Will Help Airbus Hit Delivery Targets…
Back in February, Airbus revealed via its financial results that it will be ramping up its production output to meet its new delivery target of 720 aircraft by year-end.
The Tianjin plant will help out with this, particularly on the A320 Family aircraft side of things.
For the A320 Family program, Airbus is looking to increase the production rate to 65 aircraft per month by the end of 2024 and 75 in 2026.
Such increases on this side of the program are in preparation for the entry-into-service of the A321XLR, which is due to take place in the second quarter of next year.
Airbus’ 720-Figure: Nearly A 10% Forecasted Increase…
This figure of 720 deliveries to be achieved within 2023 would represent a near-10% increase compared to 2022.
Last year, the European planemaker announced 1,000 new orders and 661 deliveries in a single year.
Airbus won 1,078 new orders, which converted to 820 net across all programs.
Below, you can see the breakdown in terms of orders unveiled by Airbus:
- A220 – 127 firm gross new orders.
- A320neo Family – 888 gross new orders.
- A330 Family – 19 gross new orders.
- A350 Family – 44 gross new orders.
In terms of deliveries, you can see the breakdown below;
| Aircraft | 2022 | 2021 |
| A220 Family | 53 | 50 |
| A320 Family | 516 | 483 |
| A330 Family | 32 | 18 |
| A350 Family | 60* | 55 |
| A380 | – | 5 |
| Total | 661* | 611 |
* After a reduction of two aircraft (2 A350-900 AEROFLOT) previously recorded as sold in December 2021, for which a transfer was not possible due to international sanctions against Russia.
Overall…
It remains clear that the Tianjin plant is going to be a vital asset for Airbus overseas, especially for customers in the Asia Pacific region.
All eyes will be on the plant to see what the production output will be like out of the facility, with this expected to deal with a lot of the backlog in that area of the world.
For now, all eyes are on Airbus Tianjin for whatever comes next.
