Cosco wins A320 Tianjin assembly line Airbus contract

TIANJIN Free Trade Zone has signed a deal with Cosco Group agreeing to outsource the door-to-door logistics service for Airbus A320 Tianjin assembly line to Cosco Logistics, Xinhua reported.

The contract is effective from 2008 to 2015, covering the air transportation, ocean shipping, river feeder transportation, ground transportation of parts of 284 aircraft and tools from Hamburg, Germany and Toulouse, France to Tianjin.

The A320 Tianjin assembly plant, which is Airbus' first assembly plant outside Europe, is jointly invested by Airbus, Tianjin Free Trade Zone, China Aviation Industry Corporation I and China Aviation Industry Corporation II.

The assembly plant is expected to finish and deliver the first aircraft in early 2009 and have a production capacity of four aircraft per month and 44 per year by 2011.

Cosco Logistics won the bidding for the logistics contract in January.