The first delivery of A330 wide-body passenger jets manufactured by the Tianjin Airbus plant is expected to take place in September 2017, according to Yang Bing, director of the Managing Committee of the Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone, on Dec. 3, 2015.

Airbus and its Chinese partners, the Tianjin Free Trade Zone Investment Company Ltd. and the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, signed a framework agreement to set up the A330 completion and delivery center in Tianjin on July 2, 2015. It is the first time that Airbus has cooperated with a non-European country on the project of wide-body passenger jets.

According to the agreement, the center will cover aircraft completion activities including reception, cabin installation, aircraft painting, engine running and flight test, as well as aircraft delivery and customer flight reception.

Coming after the company’s final assembly plant for A320 jets, this agreement to establish an A330 cabin completion center in Tianjin marks another important collaboration between Airbus and its Chinese partners. It shows great strides in bilateral cooperation.

This center will start construction in February 2015, and construction is expected to be completed in 2017 with an output of two aircraft per month.