Airbus has signed multiple contracts with China Aviation industry partners on the backdrop of French President Emmanuel Macron’s China visit. Airbus inked a new cooperation agreement with Tianjin Free Trade Zone Investment Company Ltd., and Aviation Industry Corporation of China Ltd to expand the A320 Family final assembly capacity with a second line at its Tianjin site. With this expansion Airbus will be able to achieve its objective of 75 aircraft per month in 2026 throughout its global production network.
The signing ceremony was witnessed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron, Airbus CEO, Guillaume Faury.
Apart from this, Airbus also signed General Terms of Agreement (GTA) with the China Aviation Supplies Holding Company (CAS) covering the purchase of 160 Airbus commercial aircraft. The GTA comprises earlier announcements for 150 A320 Family aircraft and for 10 A350-900 widebody aircraft orders, reflecting the strong demand in all market segments by Chinese carriers.
On the sustainability front, Airbus and the China National Aviation Fuel Group (CNAF) also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to intensify Chinese-European cooperation on the production, competitive application and common standards formulation for Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF). Earlier in September 2022, Airbus and CNAF contracted to support commercial and delivery flights in China to be operated with SAF. By the end of March, 17 delivery flights and a first commercial flight were facilitated by the two partners. This new cooperation agreement aims at optimising the SAF supply chain by diversifying the sources and enhancing SAF production towards the ambition of using 10 percent SAF by 2030.
“We are honoured to continue our long-standing cooperation by supporting China’s civil aviation growth with our leading families of aircraft. It underpins the positive recovery momentum and prosperous outlook for the Chinese aviation market and the desire to grow sustainably with Airbus’ latest generation, eco-efficient aircraft,” said Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury. “Airbus values its partnership with the Chinese aviation stakeholders and we feel privileged to remain a partner of choice in shaping the future of civil aviation in China.”
Over the next 20 years, China’s air traffic is forecast to grow at 5.3% annually, significantly faster than the world average of 3.6%. This will lead to a demand for 8,420 passenger and freighter aircraft between now and 2041, representing more than 20 percent of the world's total demand for around 39,500 new aircraft in the next 20 years.