Land requisition and removal for this project was already completed, and the construction of the assembly plant's main body will start this month, Dai Xianglong, Tianjin's mayor, was quoted as saying by the Xinhua News Agency during the Fifth Session of the 10th National People's Congress.

About 700 million yuan has been invested in building the infrastructure of the plant, and a total investment of 2 billion yuan will have been poured into the project by the end of this year, Dai said.

Tianjin beat three other candidate cities last June in a six-month competition to host Airbus' first aircraft assembly line outside Europe.

The plant, located in the Tianjin Binhai New Area, is expected to have a long-lasting impact on both the future growth of the city as an economic center of North China and the country's quest to develop its own large commercial airplanes.

Airbus China yesterday declined to comment and said details of the A320 assembly line were still awaiting the final approval of the Chinese government.

Dai also said yesterday that the expansion of the Tianjin Binhai International Airport would be completed this year.

The new terminal will cover 74,000 square meters. The airport will have a new taxiway, and the current runway and taxiway will be extended by 400 meters.

The $3-billion project was launched in 2005. The new airport will be four times larger than the original and is expected to play a key role in the development of the Binhai New Area, a State-level development zone. The 2,300-square-kilometer zone will become a gateway to North China, which the government is poised to turn into a new economic growth engine rivalling Shenzhen in the south and Shanghai in the east.

The A320 assembly plant in Tianjin will be a joint venture between a Chinese consortium and Airbus. Earlier media reports said Airbus would hold 51 per cent of the plant.

The Chinese consortium will be 60 percent controled by Tianjin Free Trade Zone Investment Co. The remaining stake will be equally shared between China Aviation Industry Corp I and China Aviation Industry Corp II, the country's two leading aviation manufacturers.

The Tianjin plant is expected to deliver the first aircraft in early 2009 and to produce 44 jets per year by 2011.

The single-aisle A320 family aircraft is the most successful model of Airbus. It has received more than 5,000 orders and a backlog of more than 2,000 jets.

Airbus is ramping up the production of A320s to meet the strong market demand. It has raised the monthly output from 30 aircraft per month at the end of 2006 to its current rate of 32 per month.

The European company hopes to increase its output to 36 by the end of 2008.

About 270 A320 family jets are in service in China, accounting for more than 80 percent of Airbus' total fleet in the country.

Airbus currently has two A320 assembly lines: one in Toulouse, France, and another in Hamburg, Germany.

(China Daily 03/07/2007 page14)