PARIS/MUNICH: Airbus is poised to open a new assembly line for the A321neo in Toulouse, France, easing a grip on production of the hot-selling jetliner enjoyed by workers in Germany and accelerating an industrial rethink caused by the demise of the much larger A380.
A formal decision on how to meet record demand for the medium-haul A321 has not been taken and operations in China and the United States are also being considered as part of an A321 study that Airbus says it will complete this year.
But industry sources say Toulouse is all but certain to get the ninth A320-family assembly line because of shorter lead times and the availability of cavernous halls built for the A380 superjumbo, which Airbus is shutting down due to weak demand.
“Toulouse is clear front-runner,” a person familiar with the plans said, while another said Airbus had been close to announcing the move at the end of the July, when it instead said only that it was considering how to shape future A321 output.
Airbus declined comment on locations.
“We see a need to adapt our assembly capacity to reflect our richer A321 mix within the A320 family from 2022 onwards,” Chief Operating Officer Michael Schoellhorn said by email.
The 180-240-seat A321 is the longest version of Airbus’s medium-haul A320 family which competes with Boeing’s 737 in the busiest part of the jet market, worth $3 trillion over 20 years.
The percentage of A321 deliveries within Airbus single-aisle output has trebled since the start of the century to 16 per cent and Airbus hopes to lift that to 50 per cent — part of a battle with Boeing for the lucrative “middle” of the jet market.
Responsibility for building the jet lies in Hamburg, which has been struggling to implement a complex new “Airbus Cabin Flex” (ACF) version offering airlines multiple layouts.
Pressure on Airbus to get things back on track was highlighted on Friday when the chief executive of British Airways owner IAG called recent delivery delays “unacceptable”.
Although a new robot-assisted A321 line opened in Hamburg last year, challenges remain: more hours are needed to build the ACF version, aerospace demand has created a skills shortage in northern Germany and engineers have not navigated the “learning-curve” — cutting time and costs — to the planned schedule.
The new line in Toulouse would not lead to an immediate increase in overall A320-family output, but would allow Airbus to speed the introduction of new technology as the focus of its rivalry with Boeing shifts from new orders to the factory floor. — Reuters
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