www.chinaview.cn 2009-05-19 20:57:09

 BEIJING, May 19 -- The first China-assembled Airbus A320 plane has made a smooth landing on the second runway in Tianjin Binhai International Airport Monday afternoon, becoming the first Airbus A320 plane assembled outside the Europe made a successful test flight.

The test flight began at 10:40 a.m. when the Airbus A320 was slowly dragged to the second runway by a trailer, and the plane took off 2 minutes later.

This Airbus A320 plane, painted in white and red and printed with the sign of "Sichuan Airlines", made a 4 hours and 16 minutes test flight before its landing.

 It is learned that the first Airbus A320 plane assembled in China, which has already been purchased by Beijing-based Dragon Aviation Leasing Co Ltd. and leased to Sichuan Airlines, will be delivered to Sichuan Airlines for operation by the end of June.

The goal of Airbus (Tianjin) final assembly line is to deliver a total of 11 aircrafts by the end of 2009, to China's Hainan Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, and Shenzhen Airlines for operating respectively.

The Airbus (Tianjin) is planning to produce 2 aircrafts per month by the end of this year and reach the maximum production capacity of 4 aircrafts per month by the end of 2011.

Tianjin is the third city which have the Airbus final assembly line besides Toulouse in France and Hamburg in Germany.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Tianjin. (XHTV)