OREANDA-NEWS. The Completion and Delivery Centre (C&DC) for Airbus widebody A330s at Tianjin, China –which began construction today – will benefit from its co-location with the existing A320 Family final assembly line in this northern Chinese city, where approximately 260 single-aisle jetliners have been built to date.           

Some 300 personnel, including nearly 50 experienced employees from the A320 final assembly line in Tianjin and 70 from Airbus’ European final assembly lines, will be working at the A330 C&DC from the start. Their activity will involve passenger cabin installation, fuselage painting, engine run, production flights, as well as delivery to customers.

Aircraft processed at the Chinese Completion and Delivery Centre will be built at Airbus’ A330 final assembly line in Toulouse, France, and then flown to Tianjin. Customer deliveries of finished A330s from Tianjin are scheduled to begin in September 2017.

Leading the Tianjin A330 completion and delivery facility will be Julien Montcru, who brings a wealth of the experience to this assignment. He began his career in Airbus’ Toulouse design office before moving to a management role in A330 cabin furnishings. Montcru next worked at the Airbus A380 industrial site in Hamburg, where the very large jetliners are fitted with their cabin interiors and painted before final delivery.  He returned to Toulouse to become head of the A320/A330/A350 paint centre from 2012 to 2015.