European aircraft manufacturer Airbus opened its first aircraft maintenance center outside of Europe this Thursday in Chengdu, a city in southwestern China, Chinese state media reported.
The facilities, which can accommodate up to 125 aircraft, will provide parking, storage, maintenance, upgrade, modification, dismantling and disposal services for all types of units, according to an Airbus announcement cited by the official Xinhua news agency.
The 717,000-square-meter center is the result of a collaboration between TARMAC Aerosave aviation company and Aerotropolis Xingcheng, a Chinese group based in Chengdu, the capital of China’s Sichuan province.
In early April, during an official visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to China, Airbus announced the construction of a second single-aisle A320 assembly line at its factory in Tianjin, northeast China.
The line is due to enter service in the second half of 2025, doubling the consortium’s production capacity in the Asian country, said Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury, who was part of a business delegation that accompanied Macron during his visit to China. .
The current plant in Tianjin is not enough to meet demand from the Asian country, which accounts for about 20% of the European manufacturer’s supply.
Airbus predicts that air travel in China will grow at a rate of 5.3% per annum over the next 20 years, compared to 3.6% growth globally.
The French President’s visit to China also resulted in the approval by the Chinese authorities of an order for 150 A320 narrow-body aircraft and ten A350 long-haul twin-body aircraft.
The aviation consortium also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the China National Aviation Fuels Group (CNAF) to cooperate to further develop so-called sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) aimed at reducing carbon emissions in the sector.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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