Airbus Tianjin’s second final assembly line delivers its first aircraft and continues to expand production capacity in China

China News Service, Tianjin, September 16 (Reporter Wang Mengyao and Zhou Yaqiang) Airbus’s second final assembly line in Tianjin, China, delivered its first aircraft on the 16th. Erik Buschmann, Global Senior Vice President of Airbus and Chief Operating Officer of Airbus China, said in an interview with the media that day that the company will expand its production capacity in China by building a second assembly line to better serve the Chinese market.

In 2008, the Tianjin A320 series aircraft assembly line was put into operation. This was Airbus's first civil aircraft assembly line outside Europe. Now, with the addition of a second assembly line, Boshuman said it "can better serve the growing demand in the Chinese market."

Currently, China has become Airbus’ largest single country market. 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%. According to Airbus forecasts, China will need 8,830 new passenger aircraft in the next 20 years, accounting for more than 20% of the total global demand for new passenger aircraft during the same period.

"We are very satisfied with the market demand and production of the A320 series aircraft in China. In addition to the final assembly of the A320 series aircraft, there is also a wide-body aircraft completion and delivery center in Tianjin. Its production is mainly based on sufficient order support from China and largely depends on the Chinese market demand." Boshuman said that the Chinese market has fully demonstrated its resilience and stability. Airbus attaches great importance to the Chinese market and will continue to increase investment in China.

In addition to “market”, “supply chain” was mentioned repeatedly in the interview.

Looking back on the development of China's supply chain over the past decade or so, Boshuman said that China's supply chain's share was relatively small at the beginning. Today, its share is large and rising. This is a step-by-step development process.

About 200 suppliers in China support the production of Airbus commercial aircraft. Airbus has established a complete life-cycle industrial layout in China, including engineering design, core parts manufacturing, aircraft assembly, and after-sales support. In 2025, the total value of Airbus’ annual industrial cooperation in China will exceed US$1.4 billion.

"We are very satisfied with our Chinese partners, especially the quality of the parts and components provided by our Chinese partners," Boshuman said. China's supply chain is very complete and robust, and the Chinese government has also given very good support, so we will further expand production capacity in Tianjin and build a second assembly line.

Now, Airbus has proposed a plan to increase production. It is said that the second assembly line will help it achieve its goal of increasing global production capacity of the A320 series aircraft to 75 aircraft per month.

"We hope to achieve this goal step by step, and we mainly rely on the trust and reliability of our partners. We will make detailed plans every month and maintain communication with our suppliers in real time," said Boshuman.

According to reports, Airbus will explore new Chinese suppliers based on the existing supply chain in the future, hoping to incorporate them into the Airbus system, continue to optimize the supply chain, and improve the resilience and reliability of the supply chain.