Airbus SE will build a new aircraft assembly line at its complex in Mobile, Ala., as it moves toward a higher rate of production during the next two years. The OEM announced it will increase the production rate of its A320 series aircraft by 50% by 2025, up to 75 jets per month from the current rate of 50 jets per month.
The production-rate increase had been signaled recently when Airbus settled new supply deals with Safran and MTU Aero Engines, the two suppliers of turbofan engines for the A320 series.
“Looking beyond 2022, we see continuing strong growth in commercial aircraft demand driven by the A320 Family,” stated CEO Guillaume Faury in the corporation’s Q1 2022 report. “As a result we are now working with our industry partners to increase A320 Family production rates further to 75 aircraft a month in 2025. This ramp-up will benefit the aerospace industry’s global value chain.”
A320 aircraft are assembled at plants in Toulouse, France; Hamburg, Germany; Tianjin, China; and Mobile, Ala., where the new assembly line will be built.
Details of Mobile expansion project were not announced.
The A320 is twin-engine, narrow-body series that currently consists of three models – the A319neo, A320neo, and A321neo – with the A321XLR extended-range version now in a prototype stage and expected to debut in 2024.
The A320 aircraft is Airbus’ best-selling series, and likely to see more demand as commercial aviation rebounds from its pandemic-era collapse.
