Airbus is targeting a major sales opportunity for the A330neo in China as the country’s large fleet of previous-generation A330ceos approaches replacement.
Speaking to Airliner World at SAS Scandinavian Airlines’ A330neo order event in Copenhagen on June 30, Benoît de Saint-Exupéry, Airbus executive vice president sales, said Chinese airlines had begun the transition to the re-engined widebody later than carriers in other markets.
He attributed the delay to China’s relatively late adoption of the previous-generation aircraft, with Chinese customers continuing to order A330ceos shortly after Airbus launched the A330neo in 2014.
“China is a bit behind because they were the last one to order the A330ceo back in 2015 just when we launched the A330neo, so there is a bit of a lag when it comes to replacement of the fleet, and so we are very hopeful that China will be replacing most of the A330ceo with the A330neo,” he said.
According to Airbus’ orders and deliveries data, China is the largest A330-operating country with 220 aircraft in service as of June 30. The fleet comprised 79 A330-200s, four A330-200Fs, 135 A330-300s and two A330-900s. The next-largest countries are the United States with 119 aircraft, Turkey with 70 and Malaysia with 66.
China Eastern Airlines was the country’s largest A330 operator, with 56 examples, followed by Air China with 43 and Hainan Airlines with 28 examples.
The A330 replacement cycle has already begun in China. On June 26, China Eastern signed an agreement to purchase 25 A330-900s, with deliveries scheduled between 2029 and 2033.
China is a strategically important commercial aircraft market for Airbus, which has established an extensive industrial presence in the country. This includes two A320 Family final assembly lines in Tianjin, the second of which opened in October 2025.
In 2017, it opened a Widebody Completion and Delivery Centre (C&DC) in Tianjin, to support cabin installation, painting, flight testing and delivery for the A330ceo. The facility was expanded to include A350 aircraft in 2019.
Benoît de Saint-Exupéry ruled out establishing a widebody final assembly line in China, but revealed that there could be potential to resume A330-related activities at the C&DC in Tianjin: “[Depending] on the business that our Chinese customers want to give us, we may resume completion of aircraft in China as we did in the past,” he said. “[But] for that we need to have the scale in terms of orders, and we’re very hopeful.”
After experiencing comparatively sluggish sales since launch, the A330neo programme recently passed the 500-order mark and in recent years, momentum has been picking up for the widebody programme.
| Airline | A330s in operation |
| China Eastern Airlines | 56 |
| Air China | 43 |
| Hainan Airlines | 28 |
| China Southern Airlines | 22 |
| Sichuan Airlines | 16 |
| Air Hong Kong | 14 |
| Beijing Capital Airlines | 13 |
| Air China Cargo | 8 |
| Shenzhen Airlines | 6 |
| Xizang Airlines | 5 |
| Lucky Air | 4 |
| Tianjin Airlines | 4 |
| JDL Airlines | 1 |
