Airbus delivers 500th A320 family aircraft assembled in China

Airbus has delivered the 500th A320 family aircraft from its Final Assembly Line Asia (FALA) in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Airbus China announced Thursday.

The A320neo airplane was delivered to China Southern Airlines, a leading airline carrier in the country.

George Xu, CEO of Airbus China, said the aircraft's delivery marked a milestone in industrial cooperation and partnership between Airbus and China's aviation industry.

In 2008, a joint venture of the A320 final assembly line was set up in Tianjin to meet surging demand from Chinese customers. It is the third location of Airbus's A320 family production facility and first outside Europe. It delivered its first A320 aircraft in 2009.

China is the largest single-country market for Airbus, accounting for about one-fifth of its global deliveries.