The plan was announced in February 2021, but since January 1 this new year 2022, Airbus has officially integrated its French, Portuguese, Morrocan, Tunesian, and Canadian aerostructures businesses within a single entity: Airbus Atlantic. A second one based in Germany is still a work in progress, depending on the outcome of tough negotiations with unions. Airbus Atlantic first step of integration aerostructures. During the presentation of the FY20 results last February, CEO Guillaume Faury announced that Airbus would keep and reorganize its aerostructures businesses STELIA Aerospace and Premium AEROTEC rather than divesting of them. “When they were created some fifteen years ago, it was thought that at a point in time they could be divested. But also placing it in the wave of disruption and innovation that is coming, like decarbonization and the Digital Design, Manufacturing and Services (DDMS) approach, the connection between the design and the production system itself is probably far more important in the new digital world than it was before. Therefore, we think it really makes sense to keep it connected.” In April, Faury offered some more details on the integration: “Fuselage aerostructures are a central part of the Airbus value stream. Today, however, our activities in this field are fragmented across the company, our subsidiaries, and suppliers. Only by consolidating our core assets can we realize the full potential of DDMS and improve our ability to customize aircraft with less disruption to our production system. In doing so, we can reduce both lead times and cost.“ Integration of sites in five countries Airbus Atlantic integrates the activities of Airbus in Nantes and Montoir-de-Bretagne with that of STELIA in Saint-Nazaire, Méaulte, Rochefort, Salaunes, and Toulouse in France. Also part of the new entity are sites in Santo Tirso in Portugal, two in Casablanca (Morocco), one in Tunis (Tunesia), plus the Canadian STELIA sites in Mirabel, Saint-Laurent, and Lunenburg. It has a combined workforce of 13.000 and expects to produce some €3.5 billion in annual revenues. The new entity produces parts for seven Airbus types plus for three other aircraft types. The Canadian sites produce and equip the front and aft fuselage sections of the A220, with more pre-assembly work being introduced in Mirabel to speed up the final assembly. For the A320neo-family, the entity is responsible for the forward fuselage, center wing box, and air inlets. This work share is identical for the A330neo but also includes the nose. For the A350-family, Airbus Atlantic makes the front and center fuselage sections, the main landing gear box, the center wing box, the keel beam, and air inlets. On non-commercial programs like the BelugaXL and A400M, the unit makes the forward fuselage, center wing box, radome, the cargo door for the XL, and the ramp for the military transport aircraft. Airbus Atlantic’s non-Airbus workshare includes the wing box, wings, engine nacelles, and some cabin furnishing on the ATR 42 and 72-family. It also builds the forward fuselage of the Bombardier Global 7500 business jet, plus parts of the center fuselage of the rivaling Dassault Falcon 10X. Atlantic also has a role in the manufacturing of the entire structure of the Guimbal Cabri helicopter, produces cockpit seats, and has produced miles and miles of tubes and pipes that are installed in aircraft. Its Business Class and Economy Class seats will keep the STELIA brand. German entity still pending While Airbus Atlantic is the first step of the integration of aerostructures and has gone pretty straightforward, Airbus still finds itself at loggerheads with unions in Germany. The plan is to create an identical entity to Atlantic in Germany by integrating Airbus Stade and Hamburg structure activities with those of Premium AEROTEC's sites in Nordenham, Augsburg (I-III), and Bremen, which produce forward fuselage sections of the A330 and A350, centrale fuselage sections of the A320, and aft fuselage plus aft tail cone sections and vertical tail fins of all Airbus aircraft. Unions are especially worried about the prospect of huge job losses when Airbus creates a third entity for so-called detail parts. This will involve the Premium AEROTEC plants at Augsburg (IV) and Brasov (Rumania) and that of Airbus in Varel to produce parts and sub-assembly components for both civil and military applications and maybe even for the automotive industry. Since announcing the plans in more detail in April last year, there has been a huge debate about the detail parts unit that delays the completion of the German aerostructures business. Excluded from the two units is Airbus UK, which produces the wings for most Airbus aircraft. And also the Spanish units in Puerto Real near Cadiz which used to have a major workshare in the empennage of the A380. It now produces horizontal stabilizers for the A330, A350, and elevators for the A320neo-family. Tensions have been running high as the workforce and unions are trying to prevent the closure of the site and went on strike on numerous occasions during the past year. Airbus said in December that it will strengthen its presence in Spain by opening a third Zero Emission Development Center (ZEDC) there as well as a new entity of the innovation subsidiary UpNext. Before it can fully benefit from its restructured aerostructures units, Airbus will first have to solve the issues it has in Germany and Spain.
