Airbus has opened a new final assembly line at Toulouse to produce its A320 family aircraft.
Occupying the former “Jean-Luc Lagardère” assembly building that once built the A380 superjumbos, the new line has been quietly processing new airliner assemblies since the end of 2022, but has now officially been opened in a ceremony.
Most notably, the new line is capable of producing A321 aircraft – traditionally the domain of Airbus’s Hamburg Finkenwerder plant.
Sales of the A321neo (and its LR and XLR models) have skyrocketed recently, increasing the backlog significantly. With the inauguration of this new line at Toulouse, the manufacturer will be able to produce these airliners at a faster rate. It currently has a target of 75 new A320 family aircraft per month (across all production sites).
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said “We’re pleased to see this new facility join our worldwide network of final assembly sites which will comprise four FALs in Hamburg, Germany; two in Toulouse, France; two in Mobile, United States; and two in Tianjin, China, all them capable of assembling the A321.”
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