Martyn Cartledge describes a viewing area which provides excellent photographic opportunities at the Airbus production facility at Finkenwerder.
AIRPORT: HAMBURG/FINKENWERDER
VIEWING AREA OPENING TIMES: 24 HOURS
COST: FREE
The large Airbus facility at Hamburg/Finkenwerder (XFW/ EDHI) in Germany has a final assembly line (FAL) for the A320 Family. The massive A380 is a regular sight as new aircraft arrive for cabin furnishing, painting, some test flying and delivery to customers (handovers also occur at Toulouse, and the forward and rear fuselage sections of the A380 are put together at the German site before being sent to Toulouse on specially built roll-on/roll-offships).
Manufacturing of the rear fuselage sections for the A330 and A350 programmes also takes place here, and it serves as the logistics hub for the Airbus FALs in Tianjin, China and Mobile, Alabama.