Airbus have begun construction on a brand new Completion and Delivery Centre in Tianjin China. This new facility will be the final stop for the widebody A330 aircraft. The location was chosen due to its close proximity to the final assembly line for the Airbus A320 family. The existing facility has been based in Tianjin since 2009 and has been responsible for the building of more than 250 of the single-aisle aircraft to date.

Once the Completion and Delivery Centre opens the facility will employ around three hundred personnel with fifty bringing their experience over from the existing Tianjin A320 assembly line and a further seventy will be moving from Airbus’ various European final assembly lines. The A330 Completion and Delivery Centre will be responsible for a series tasks including installation of the passenger cabin, fuselage paint jobs, engine running, production flights, and final delivery to customers.

The Airbus A330 aircraft scheduled to be processed at the new Completion and Delivery Centre will first be assembled at the existing final assembly line in Toulouse, France before being flow to Tianjin. The first aircraft off the production line will be delivered to their customers in September 2017.

Also moving over to the new facility is Julien Montcru who has served a series of roles at Airbus and brings with him vast experience. He started his Airbus career in the Toulouse design office before taking on his first management role dealing with A330 cabin furnishings. Montcru then moved onto Hamburg where he worked at the Airbus A380 site when the giant airliners had their cabin interiors fitted before their final paint job and delivery. From 2012 he spent three years back in Toulouse where headed up the paint centre for the A320, A330 and A350.

The move makes sense for Airbus with China set to become one of the leading countries for air traffic and the company already having a roughly 50% share of the current market having seen a massive growth over there over the past 20 years.