Set up jointly with China Aviation Supplies Import and Export Corporation in 1998, the Airbus Beijing Training Centre contains two full flight simulators and has trained thousands of aircrew, cabin crew and maintenance engineers - many from outside China. The Airbus Customer Support Centre stocks some 25,000 spare parts, has a dedicated avionics repair workshop and provides an operating base for a further 20 vendors to offer local and regional customer support.
In September 2008, Airbus opened the A320 Final Assembly Line and Delivery Centre (FALC), a joint venture between the Tianjin Free Trade Zone (TFTZ) and China Aviation Industry Corporation. The FALC also spreads environmental best-practice, operating to ISO 14001 and OHAS18001 standards. The first locally-built aircraft flew in May 2009. Production in Tianjin is scheduled to rise to the rate of four per month during 2012.
Additional co-operation with China is growing through Airbus ProSky, working with Chinese authorities to implement new air traffic management concepts, training and best practice. The same approach will be used in other countries.