Will China order more than a hundred aircraft from Airbus ?

The European aerospace industry has just taken a decisive step forward with the announcement last Wednesday in Beijing of a massive order from China for « up to 120 » Airbus aircraft.

This statement, made by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during his first major official visit to China, confirms the central role of the European giant in the strategy to renew the fleets of Chinese airlines in the face of its competitor Boeing.

This major contract, which could amount to tens of billions of dollars according to list prices, primarily concerns single-aisle aircraft from the A320neo family, highly sought after for domestic and regional routes in Asia, but could also include A350 wide-body aircraft to support the international expansion of the Chinese network.

This order strengthens Airbus’s industrial presence in China, particularly through its final assembly line (FAL) in Tianjin, whose capacity was recently doubled to meet local demand.

For Friedrich Merz, this diplomatic and commercial success underscores a desire to stabilize economic relations between Berlin and Beijing, while guaranteeing thousands of hours of work for the European plants in Toulouse and Hamburg.

This renewed partnership comes at a time of strong recovery in global air traffic in 2026, positioning Airbus as the preferred partner for the transition to lower-carbon aviation thanks to its new-generation engines, thus consolidating its dominance in the Asian market for the coming decade.