FILE PHOTO: Brand of Airbus is pictured on the plane builder’s headquarters of Airbus in Colomiers close to Toulouse, France, September 27, 2019. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau
PARIS/TOULOUSE (Reuters) – Airbus (AIR.PA) has shelved plans to create a brand new meeting line in Toulouse, France, for its A321 airliner as the corporate wrestles with the coronavirus disaster.
Airbus introduced plans for the road in January when its drawback was learn how to meet file demand for the jet from its web site in Hamburg, Germany, which has struggled to accommodate the additional hours and complexity concerned in making Airbus’s most formidable single-aisle jet.
Though the plan to transform the corporate’s A380 manufacturing plant in Toulouse, which is winding down, stays on the desk, the urgency to go forward with it has disappeared with the monetary pressures of the coronavirus disaster, trade sources mentioned.
“Our plans for an A321 line in Toulouse are paused, on maintain,” an Airbus spokesman confirmed. “Once we see charges going up once more, we are going to reconnect to the plans.”
Chief Govt Guillaume Faury instructed reporters this week that Airbus would “hibernate” new investments to avoid wasting money.
That leaves a query over what to do with its large Lagardere A380 manufacturing plant in Toulouse, the place manufacturing of the world’s largest airliner is because of finish in coming months, elevating uncertainty over the function of tons of of employees.
French unions mentioned they’d struggle for the plant.
“In contrast to Guillaume Faury who desires to halt non-essential funding, we expect the arrival of a brand new A321 line within the Lagardere manufacturing unit have to be maintained,” mentioned CGT union official Xavier Petrachi.
Reporting by Tim Hepher, Johanna Decorse; modifying by Jason Neely and Jane Merriman
