Airbus has inaugurated its A330 Completion and Delivery Centre (C&DC), located next to the A320 Family Final Assembly Line in Tianjin, China.
Airbus has inaugurated its A330 Completion and Delivery Centre (C&DC) in Tianjin, China, its first wide-body centre outside Europe. At the same time, the first A330 to be delivered from the C&DC was handed over to Tianjin Airlines.
Located at the same site as the Airbus Tianjin A320 Family Final Assembly Line and the Airbus Tianjin Delivery Centre, the A330 C&DC covers aircraft completion activities including cabin installation, aircraft painting and production flight test, as well as customer flight acceptance and aircraft delivery.
Some 150 Chinese staff members of the C&DC were trained by Airbus experts in Toulouse.
The new plant includes a paint shop, weighing hangar and one main hangar with three aircraft positions covering an area of 16,800m2. The A330 C&DC in Tianjin will employ more than 250 people and aims to deliver two aircraft per month by early 2019.
To celebrate C&DC inauguration, a first A330 aircraft was delivered to Tianjin Airlines. The aircraft, which was assembled and equipped in Toulouse by Chinese and European personnel, is powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines and is configured in two classes with 260 seats.
Tianjin Airlines, part of China’s HNA Group, operates a fleet of 77 aircraft, mainly consisting of A320s, Embraer E190s and ERJ145s.
As of the end of August 2017, the in-service Airbus fleet with Chinese carriers comprised 1,484 aircraft — 1,282 A320 Family and 202 A330 Family.