Aircraft
Airbus To Build Second Assembly Line at Chinese A320 Site
An agreement to expand Airbus’s production capacity in China came during an official visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to Beijing.
Airbus A320 under assembly in Tianjin
The Airbus A320 family assembly line in Tianjin, China, now produces six aircraft a month. (Photo: Airbus)

As relations between China and the U.S. continue to deteriorate, an official state visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to Beijing on Thursday served as a backdrop for Airbus’s latest cooperative venture with the People’s Republic. The European airframer signed an agreement with Tianjin Free Trade Zone Investment Company and Aviation Industry Corporation of China to expand production capacity for the A320 airliner family with a second assembly line in Tianjin.

Witnessed by Macron, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury, the agreement will help the company meet its global production rate objective of 75 aircraft per month in 2026.