Airbus has delivered the first aircraft assembled on its second A320 Family final assembly line in China, nearly a year after the new facility opened in Tianjin.
The A320neo was handed over to China Eastern Airlines on September 16, becoming the first completed aircraft to emerge from the second production line at the site.
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Airbus opened the facility in October 2025, expanding a Chinese industrial operation that began with its first Tianjin final assembly line in 2008. The original facility was Airbus' first commercial aircraft assembly line outside Europe.
More than 800 A320 Family aircraft have now been assembled and delivered from Tianjin, according to the manufacturer.
China Eastern is one of Airbus' largest customers in China. At the end of August, the airline operated 393 A320 Family aircraft, along with 56 A330 Family jets and 20 A350-900s.
Ten A320 Family assembly lines worldwide
The addition of the second Tianjin line forms part of a major expansion of Airbus' narrowbody production system.
Airbus now has ten A320 Family final assembly lines worldwide: four in Hamburg, two in Toulouse, two in Mobile, Alabama, and two in Tianjin.
A second line in Mobile was inaugurated in October 2025, while Airbus opened another A320 Family final assembly line in Toulouse in June 2026 at the former A380 Lagardère site.
The expanded industrial footprint is intended to provide the capacity needed for Airbus to increase A320 Family output to between 70 and 75 aircraft per month by the end of 2027, before stabilizing production at 75.
Airbus had a backlog of 7,577 A320 Family aircraft at the end of August, including 5,691 A321neos.
China expected to require 8,830 aircraft
Tianjin also gives Airbus production capacity inside what it expects to remain one of the world's largest commercial aviation markets.
The manufacturer's latest Global Market Forecast estimates that Chinese airlines will require 8,830 new passenger aircraft between 2026 and 2045, accounting for more than 20% of projected worldwide demand of 42,060 aircraft.
Airbus is also increasing its use of Chinese aerospace suppliers. Erik Buschmann, chief operating officer of Airbus China, said during the delivery ceremony that the manufacturer was seeing a resilient supply chain in the country and described its Chinese suppliers as increasingly important to the company's production system.
The first Tianjin assembly line has operated for 18 years. With the second facility now delivering aircraft, China hosts the same number of A320 Family final assembly lines as the United States and Toulouse, while Hamburg remains the program's largest final assembly location with four.
