Final assembly of first A320neo under way

Final assembly of the first A320neo is underway at Airbus’s Toulouse facility with the joining of the forward and aft fuselage sections.

The forward fuselage is built at Airbus’s Saint Nazaire, France plant, with the rear fuselage built in Hamburg, Germany.

Final assembly will take approximately one month, Airbus says, with first flight planned for the fourth quarter of this year and first delivery in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Airbus reports over 2,600 A320neo orders from 50 customers to date.