Construction of main part of the Airbus 320 project will soon begin in the New Coastal District of Tianjin, a port city in the north of China, with the general assembly line to be finished by the end of this year.

Dai Xianglong, deputy to the National People's Congress and mayor of Tianjin Municipality, said that since last June when Airbus decided to establish a general assembly line for it's A320 in Tianjin New Coastal District all parties had signed an agreement on the project framework. The site of the factory is already being prepared, with old housing already removed and the land levied. Already 700 million yuan has been invested into auxiliary facilities. This month, work on the main project will officially get underway, and by the end of 2007, the total investment will reach 2 billion yuan, and achieve the aim of finishing all the basic equipment projects and the general assembly line.

The Airbus A320 is a 150-seat aircraft available on the global market, and is in high demand. On June 8, 2006, the National Development and Reform Commission announced that an Airbus A320 general assembly line would be established in Tianjin New Coastal District. Auxiliary projects supplying basic equipment cover an area of 2.4 square kilometers. This is Airbus' first assembly line outside of Europe. The first aircraft from the Tianjin factory is expected to be delivered in 2008, and by 2011, the assembly line should be able to produce four airplanes per month.

By People's Daily Online