The European aircraft manufacturer Airbus is planning to reorganize structural assembly in Europe. To this end, new companies are to be founded in France and Germany. Talks are currently underway about the future in Spain. The European social partners were informed about the project at a meeting.

The company confirmed that it is striving to strengthen its value chain for aircraft structure assembly in its industrial system and that it regards aircraft structure assembly as a core activity. Two integrated companies for aircraft structure assembly are to be created at the heart of its industrial system. This is intended to optimize the production process and prepare Airbus for its short and long-term future.

The new company, based in France, will bring together the activities currently carried out at Airbus in Saint-Nazaire and Nantes with those of STELIA Aerospace worldwide. The company, based in Germany, will merge the activities of Stade as well as the structural assembly in Hamburg with those of Premium AEROTEC in Nordenham, Bremen and partly in Augsburg. As a result, the activities within the value chain should be positioned higher and participation in the production of individual parts should be checked.

Activities in Spain are to be "optimized"

These new aircraft structure assembly companies, both wholly owned by Airbus, will no longer act as subcontractors. They will be integrated into the Airbus Group, which will simplify control and interfaces in a new industrial structure. Their independent status will enable them to concentrate on their area and at the same time become leaner and more flexible. This promotes competitiveness, innovation and quality for the benefit of the Airbus programs of today and tomorrow.

Airbus is also planning to found a new global player in the field of single-part production based in Germany. This new unit, which emerges from today's Premium AEROTEC, would, with its size and its advanced technologies, be able to take advantage of the significant long-term growth prospects of Airbus and other, external customers, in both civil and military platforms.

In Spain, Airbus continues to work with the social partners on solutions to optimize the current industrial setup and aircraft structure assembly in the Cadiz region in order to ensure profitability and competitiveness for the future.