Airbus delivered on Thursday the first A350-900 that was completed at the Tianjin division in China. The aircraft was transferred to China Eastern Airlines, second largest customer of the planemaker in the world.
The Chinese completion and delivery centre opened in 2017 to finalize A330 jets. At the same location, Airbus also has a final assembly line for the A320 family.
In 2019, during the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to China, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed so that the unit could start carrying out the process of completing the A350.
Aircraft completion activities include cabin installation, aircraft painting and production flight testing, customer flight acceptance and aircraft delivery.
“This is a new milestone in the long-term cooperation between China and Airbus, which further demonstrates Airbus’ commitment to the country. Congratulations to China Eastern Airlines, our long-term strategic partner, for receiving the first A350 delivered from China, and I appreciate their trust in Airbus and our products as always,” said George Xu, Airbus China CEO.
China Eastern Airlines has a fleet of 589 aircraft of which 413 are provided by Airbus, including 349 A320 Family aircraft, 55 A330 Family aircraft and nine A350 aircraft.
