Malaysian Made

Airbus has agreed to study an A320 final assembly line in Malaysia

The lure of Asia continues to attract serious attention from planemakers Boeing and Airbus as they go all out to show the region they are not only interested in commercial jet sales but keen to become an integral part of the local aerospace industry.

Airbus A320 and A330 are already rolling off final assembly lines (FAL) in Tianjin, China while Boeing B737 are set to begin deliveries to local carriers from the Seattle manufacturers new overseas completion and delivery centre at Zhoushan near Shanghai in the near future. It’s not that they are actually building the planes at any of these facilities. In Airbus’ case all the parts are shipped in from Europe and elsewhere and, like a giant Meccano set, slotted together in China. In Boeing’s case, the B737s are built at Renton in Washington State and then flown to China for final fit out and delivery.