Industry Airbus to add A321 production capabilities in Toulouse

Airbus has released that it will add a production capability for A321 aircraft at its main production plant in Toulouse, France. Previously, the A321 Family has been produced at the Final Assembly Line (FAL) at Hamburg. In addition, the A321 is being assembled and delivered from Mobile, USA, too.

The decision was made over the course of Airbus´ strategy to keep its overall production system at the leading edge of technology. Furthermore, the manufacturer seeks to increase the industrial capacity at its Toulouse site.

“We are enjoying an unprecedented high demand for our winning A320neo Family and especially its A321 Long Range (LR) and Xtra Long Range (XLR) derivatives,” said Michael Schoellhorn, Airbus Chief Operating Officer. “In order to optimize the industrial flow, we have decided to increase our global A321 production capacity and flexibility as well as to establish a next generation Final Assembly Line in Toulouse.”

By mid-2020, Airbus hopes that the current A380 Lagardére facility will be transfigured to be a digitally enabled A321 assembly line. The new facilities will provide more flexibility for the A321 production.

Furthermore, Toulouse was selected due to the existing floor space and resources and due to the overall competitiveness, time to market and investment costs. In Toulouse, Airbus is producing all airbus aircraft apart of the A220 and the A321.

With the introduction of the Airbus A321XLR last year, Airbus was able to receive new orders for its latest evolutionary step of the popular A321 series. From 2023, the XLR will deliver an unprecedented Xtra Long Range of up to 4,700nautical miles and a 30% lower fuel burn per seat when compared with previous generation aircraft.

This latest announcement to establish a new production plant for the A321 underlines the manufacturers´ ambitions with the aircraft model. Especially, after Boeing´s disaster with the MAX and the delay of the MoM aircraft, Airbus has identified, that the A321XLR is a market niche.

Today, Airbus has FAL´s in Toulouse, Hamburg, Alabama, Montreal and Tianjin, so that customers around the world can receive their aircraft in the most time efficient manner possible.