Airbus and Xi'an Aircraft Industry Company (XAC) signed a cooperation agreement here on Monday to have the A320 Family wing "fully completed and tested" in China.

The agreement signed by Brian Fleet, Airbus senior vice president, and Meng Xiangkai, president of XAC, in London, in the presence of the visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and his British counterpart Gordon Brown.

According to this fourth phase of the agreement, the wing equipping and testing will be done in Tianjin in a facility to be newly built close to the A320 FALC by XAC, a wholly owned subsidiary of China Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC).

The fully equipped and tested wings will be directly delivered to the nearby Final Assembly Line.

The wingbox structures assembled by XAC in China are now completed at Airbus'Broughton site, before being transported to the Final Assembly Line in China.

The wing equipping operations are expected to start at the end of 2009, followed by the first delivery of a fully equipped set of wings in the first quarter of 2010.

"With this project, Airbus is fulfilling its support to the cooperation agreement regarding A320 China wing manufacture," said Fleet.

He said that having this facility close to the FALC is the most efficient industrial solution which will save transportation costs, reduce lead-time and risks in handling, and ensures quicker response time to our customers.

Meng said that "I am confident that we will also be successful with this fourth phase, after successes in the first three phases. "

(Xinhua News Agency February 3, 2009)