Mayor Huang Xingguo of the northern city of Tianjin, where Airbus has operated an assembly plant since last year, said a total of 11 planes would be assembled at the plant this year, the Xinhua news agency reported.

It did not say how many of the planes would be ready in June.

Xinhua quoted Huang as saying another 15 aircraft were scheduled to come off the assembly line next year and that orders had been secured for the next three years, with production planned until 2016.

The assembly line is expected to deliver a total of 286 airplanes by 2016, he said.

Xinhua reported last month that five Airbus A320s were being assembled at the Tianjin plant and that the first would be ready for a test flight in May, quoting Feng Zhijiang, an executive at the Tianjin Free Trade Zone.

The Tianjin plant, unveiled in September last year with a total estimated investment of 8.0 to 10 billion yuan (1.17 to 1.47 billion dollars), is the aerospace giant's first production facility outside Europe.

Feng told Xinhua major parts of the aircraft had been put together in Germany before being transported to Tianjin for final assembly.

"Another 12 China-assembled A320s will be delivered next year," he said. "They will adopt Chinese-made parts, including wings and fuselage, and assembly of the major parts will also be done here in Tianjin."

The other assembly lines for Airbus -- the commercial subsidiary of the giant European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) -- are in France and Germany.

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