Boeing (www.boeing.com) and joint-venture partner Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd (COMAC) (www.english.comac.cc) celebrated the delivery of the first aeroplane from the new 737 Completion and Delivery Center in Zhoushan, 20 months after construction began at the 100-acre site.

The MAX 8 for Air China was assembled in Renton (Washington state) and completed in China. The Completion Center is the first such Boeing facility outside the USA. It has been built in partner-ship with the Zhejiang Provincial and Zhoushan Municipal governments, and it will become fully operational in phases, as its capacity is expanded.

Boeing 737 MAX aircraft for Chinese airlines will be flown from Seattle to Zhoushan, where the Completion Center will complete interior work on the aircraft. The scope of work will later expand to include painting, with the addition of three paint hangers.

Once completed, aeroplanes will move to the adjacent Boeing-operated delivery centre for customer acceptance activities and delivery formalities.

The facility, which covers 666,000ft², is designed to support the entire 737 MAX family of aircraft, from the long-range MAX 7 to the high-capacity MAX 10.

With about one third of all 737 deliveries going to Chinese customers, the Zhoushan facility will enable Chinese airlines to update and expand their fleets with the most technologically advanced Boeing single-aisle aeroplanes.