BEIJING - European aviation giant Airbus will deliver the first A320 airplane assembled at its factory in China tomorrow, in a symbolic event further marking the nation's global rise.

The first plane to be made at its plant in northern Tianjin, the only Airbus factory outside Europe, will be delivered to Dragon Aviation Leasing and will be flown by Sichuan Airlines, a regional Chinese air carrier.

The plane took its first test flight last month with the first Chinese test engineer trained by Airbus.

Ten middle-distance A319/320 aircraft will be delivered by the end of the year, before the factory starts to churn out up to four planes a month before the end of 2011.

The Tianjin plant, modelled on Airbus' factory in Hamburg, Germany, has an investment of nearly 10 billion yuan (S$2.1 billion).

It went into operation last September in the presence of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

The joint-venture factory, about 120km south-east of Beijing, is 51 per cent owned by Airbus, a subsidiary of European group EADS, and 49 per cent owned by a Chinese aviation consortium.

The venture has revealed the extent that Airbus had gone to to get a foothold in one of the world's most dynamic markets.

At the inauguration, Airbus chief executive officer Thomas Enders said the company's "new house" would become "the jump-off point for the future development of Airbus in China and in the region".