Great Oct. for Airbus!!

Shanghai assembed MD80/90 and made chunks – inc nose – sent to MDC. Chinese aero industry is now organised as AVIC 1, doing ARJ21 at Xian, and AVIC 2 assembling ERJ135/45 at Harbin. Before all that, mid-90s, Airbus Industrie schemed an RJ with (then name) CATIC. That fell apart on Certification time and money, so the type became A318. Airbus and (AVIC 1/2) have since been seeking a mutually beneficial way of offsetting China’s purchases. There will be intent for AI offtake of some AVIC models – some SAIC MD80s went to TWA. Boeing did explore 737 local assembly, has increased its sourcing from AVIC, and may yet do more. None of this has anything to do with current, transient 350WXB/380 issues.

I think this is good for both Airbus and Virgin atlantic ( if virgin doesnt need the capability right away) . Airbus can now commit delivery slots to Bigger customers . I wonder if Airbus went to Virgin and offered them a sweeter deal to take deliv. later or Its just Virgin waiting to see how the Plane does in service . Virgin always seemed to be the customer that was the most likely to defer/cancel orders .

Didn’t think it was necessary to start a new thread, but Virgin Atlantic have just deffered their A380 orders by 4 years.
Story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6089198.stm

Seems like an awfull lot of wasted energy. And a lot of needless complicated infrastructure

Why do you guys think that is a bad thing? Isn’t it more likely that Airbus did their homework and calculated that while all the shipping of the parts to china and initial infrastructure investment would add some cost, overal cost would still be lower because of long term benefit of cheaper labour?

A more likely scenario is that the hamburg and tolouse plants were churning out A320’s at near capacity and that Airbus had to invest in a new plant to get close to that required 10% gain in production . If this is the case ( as is being widely rumoured) then it would be much much more economical to spend that money in china where the Final Assembly will be more cost effective . Moreover the line for the 4 years or so will be busy churning out A320’s for domestic use which might not have been accomodated in that timeframe if produced in house . It gives then a great edge in getting repeat orders in the NB segement .

It will allow them to build the same plane as they would be able to in europe but for less money.

They are only assembling them in china , majority of the work will still be in europe.

In the end, it seems to be a win-win deal for both airbus and chinese industry.

BINGO !

I didn’t say it was a bad thing. Just aired my opinion on the logistics of the whole thing.

Why do you guys think that is a bad thing? Isn’t it more likely that Airbus did their homework and calculated that while all the shipping of the parts to china and initial infrastructure investment would add some cost, overal cost would still be lower because of long term benefit of cheaper labour? I would think the decision to have a assembly line in china is a pure profit one. It will allow them to build the same plane as they would be able to in europe but for less money. That either means higher profit margins or same margins but with cheaper end price for the customer, therefore making it a more attractive purchase. In the end, it seems to be a win-win deal for both airbus and chinese industry.

Seems like an awfull lot of wasted energy. And a lot of needless complicated infrastructure

The Final assembly will be in china . The wings and other parts will be flown to china for final assembly and the factories will be assembling @ a rate of 48 aircrafts per annum .

But those A320’s will be manufactured in China :(.

Commercial planemaker Airbus has won a multi-billion dollar Chinese order for 150 of its A320 planes, some of which will be assembled in China.

The factory in the north-eastern city of Tianjin will build its first A320 in 2009 and then manufacture four a month.

The deal also includes an option for China to buy 20 of the planemaker’s new wide-body A350.

Economic expansion is driving demand for air travel in China, a key growth market for Airbus and rival Boeing.

Chinese airlines have ordered 150 Boeing 737s in recent years. The 737 is the US aerospace giant’s nearest competitor to the A320.

“It is a means for us to develop a long-term vision with the Chinese,” said Airbus chief executive Louis Gallois.

“It is clear that building the planes in China will give the Chinese an incentive to buy more of our aircraft.”

The deal was signed during French President Jacques Chirac’s visit to Beijing, and adds to last year’s order for 150 Airbus planes signed during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to France.

Source: BBC.co.uk – Airbus sells 150 A320s to China

Plural for Aircarft is Aircraft. No S :p

Tis about time something positive turned up for Airbus.