European aviation giant Airbus will deliver the first A320 airplane assembled at its factory in China tomorrow in a symbolic event further marking the nation’s global rise.
The first plane to be made at plant in northern Tianjin, the only Airbus factory outside Europe, will be delivered to Dragon Aviation Leasing (奇龍航空租賃) and will be flown by Sichuan Airlines (四川航空), a regional Chinese air carrier.
A grand ceremony is expected to be held for the roll out, but so far Airbus has remained discreet about who has been invited to the event, which will take place with no minister-level officials from Germany or France, sources said.
The plane took its first test flight last month with the first Chinese test engineer trained by Airbus.
Ten middle-distance A319/320 aircraft will be delivered by the end of the year, before the factory starts to churn out up to four planes a month before the end of 2011.
The Tianjin plant, modeled on Airbus’ factory in Hamburg, Germany, has an investment of nearly 10 billion yuan (US$1.47 billion) and went into operation in September.
The joint venture factory, about 120km southeast of Beijing, is 51 percent owned by Airbus, subsidiary of the European group EADS, and 49 percent by a Chinese aviation consortium.
Unions raised concerns when the deal was struck, but the aviation giant insisted orders would not fall at its European plants and that it had worked to minimize technology transfers to China.
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