The company plans to consolidate some of its manufacturing activities in a bid to become “leaner and more agile”
European aerospace giant Airbus has revealed details of transformation plans for its aerostructures activities in France and Germany.
During a European Works Council meeting, the airframer presented its proposals to create two integrated assembly companies to replace the fragmented supplier heavy process currently in place.
As part of these plans – and upon successful completion of the ongoing social process – the new company in France would consolidate the activities currently managed by Airbus in Saint-Nazaire and Nantes with those of STELIA Aerospace worldwide.
Another company in Germany would bring its activities in the city of Stade and structure assembly in Hamburg together with those of Premium AEROTEC in Nordenham, Bremen and partly in Augsburg, while rebalancing activities towards the upper part of the value chain and reviewing its involvement in the manufacturing of detail parts.
The two new aerostructure companies – which will both be wholly owned by the airframer – would no longer be suppliers but become integrated with the Airbus perimeter. The company says this will simplify both governance and interfaces in a new industrial setup.
According to the firm, it will also allow them to “focus on their industry segment and be leaner and more agile, fostering competitiveness, innovation and quality to the benefit of the Airbus programmes of today and tomorrow.”
In Spain, the company is continuing to work on solutions with is social partners to optimise the current industrial and aerostructures setup in the Cádiz area. It says this is to “ensure its viability, resilience and competitiveness for the future”.
