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Airbus JV in China offered A350 XWB belly fairing work package

Airbus' latest joint venture in China, Harbin Hafei Airbus Composite Manufacturing Centre (the Manufacturing Centre), has signed a contract for the work package of A350 XWB belly fairing parts with the Spain-based Alestis Aerospace. As one of Airbus' tier one suppliers, Alestis is specialized in the design, development, certification, manufacturing and support of complex carbon fiber aerostructure.

The contract was signed today by Gaizka Grajales, CEO of Alestis Aerospace and Liu Guanglin, Chairman of the Harbin Hafei Airbus Composite Manufacturing Centre, at the Farnborough International Airshow.

Under the contract, the Manufacturing Centre will become the sole supplier of certain parts of the A350 XWB belly fairing to Alestis. Alestis will be responsible for the design, material review and configuration of the parts and the design of the processes and tooling. The detailed design of the parts will be outsourced to Airbus (Beijing) Engineering Centre (ABEC), another joint venture of Airbus in China. Production in China is expected to start in 2012 after an initial industrialisation phase in Europe. The parts manufactured in China will be shipped to Spain to be integrated onto the complete belly fairing.

The belly fairing work package is the fourth A350 XWB work package allocated to the Manufacturing Centre following the agreements for the A350 rudder, A350 S19 maintenance door and A350 XWB elevators.

"The latest work package has made the Harbin Hafei Airbus Composite Manufacturing Centre the largest supplier to the five percent of the A350 XWB work packages to be performed in China," said Liu Guanglin, Chairman of the Manufacturing Centre. "We are looking forward to the cooperation with Alestis. The building of the new facilities of the Manufacturing Centre is on track and the training of Chinese staff is underway. We are confident to deliver the work packages on quality and on time."

"With this work package, we are another step closer to the completion of the allocation of the five percent A350 XWB work packages to be performed in China," said Laurence Barron, President of Airbus China. "This is another demonstration of our commitment to the long term partnership with the Chinese aviation industry," he added.

Press release issued by Airbus S.A.S. on July 21, 2010

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