File photo/Xu Shuai (NBD)

On April 6th, European aircraft manufacturer Airbus announced that it had signed a new cooperation agreement with its Chinese aviation partners.

Among them, Airbus signed a bulk purchase agreement for 160 Airbus civil aircraft with China Aviation Supplies Holding Company (CAS), including 150 A320 series aircraft and 10 A350-900 wide-body aircraft, with a total value of approximately $20 billion.

Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury revealed that Airbus will build a second final assembly line in Tianjin, which will have the production capacity for A320 and A321 aircraft.

The second line is scheduled to be officially put into operation by the end of 2025, and Airbus will have a total of 10 final assembly lines worldwide.

Faury also stated that the Airbus Tianjin final assembly line has already completed the final assembly of more than 600 A320 series aircraft, and there are more than 2,000 Airbus aircraft in service in China, which means that 30% of the aircraft are produced in China.

The construction of the second final assembly line also means that 20% of the global single-aisle aircraft final assembly will be carried out in Tianjin.

As of the end of March 2023, the number of Airbus aircraft in service in China has increased to more than 2,100, with a market share of over 50%.