Global aircraft manufacturer Airbus has delivered the first passenger aircraft at its second final assembly line in China.
On September 16, Airbus (hereinafter referred to as “Airbus”) successfully delivered the first aircraft that completed the final assembly of the Tianjin A320 series aircraft’s second assembly line. This A320neo aircraft is received and operated by China Eastern Airlines. This delivery marks a new stage of development for Airbus’ industrial layout in China and around the world.
China Eastern Airlines took delivery of China’s first Airbus aircraft in 1985. As of the end of August 2026, China Eastern Airlines operates the largest Airbus fleet in mainland China, including 393 A320 series aircraft, 56 A330 series aircraft and 20 A350-900 aircraft.
On September 16, Airbus Global Senior Vice President and Airbus China Chief Operating Officer Erik BUSCHMANN pointed out in an interview with media including The Paper that China is currently Airbus’ largest single country market. The Chinese market has sufficient resilience and stability, as well as a forward-looking innovation environment. Based on this, Airbus continues to increase investment in China and expand production capacity to better respond to the growing demand from Chinese customers.
Airbus currently has ten final assembly lines, four of which are located in Hamburg, Germany, two in Toulouse, France, two in Mobile, the United States, and two in Tianjin, China. Since the Airbus Tianjin A320 series aircraft final assembly line was put into operation in 2008, more than 800 A320 series aircraft have been assembled and delivered. The second final assembly line of Airbus Tianjin A320 series aircraft will be officially put into production in October 2025. The second final assembly line of Airbus Tianjin is crucial to achieving the goal of increasing the global production capacity of A320 series aircraft to 75 aircraft per month.
According to the global aviation market forecast recently released by Airbus, China will need 8,830 new passenger aircraft in the next two decades, which accounts for more than 20% of the total global demand for new passenger aircraft of 42,060 in the same period.
The A320 series passenger aircraft is one of the most commonly used single-aisle mainline passenger aircraft in China and is also Airbus’ best-selling model. In order to meet the replacement needs of old aircraft in the fleet, in recent years, the three major airlines, state-owned enterprise groups and many private airlines have ushered in a purchase wave and concentrated on placing orders for A320 series aircraft.
According to the reporter’s understanding, as of the end of August 2026, nearly 30 airlines in mainland China operate a total of 2,370 Airbus civil aircraft, with a market share of more than 50%.
Will other models be introduced to the final assembly line in the future? Bossman said in the interview that in addition to A320 final assembly, Airbus currently also has a wide-body aircraft completion and delivery center in Tianjin. Local production depends greatly on the demand of the Chinese market. Therefore, delivering the A320 to Chinese customers is the most important issue for Airbus China at the moment.
Talking about the development of China’s supply chain, Boshuman said that in the past 10 to 15 years, the share of China’s supply chain was relatively small at first. With continuous development, the share has become very large and is still rising.
