Airbus intends to maintain production levels through the current downturn, saying stable, high output is key to the health of the industry's entire supply chain.

"People question how it can be that we and our competitor are still running production very high," says Airbus chief executive Tom Enders. "We have customers who want the aircraft, and we can help customers with financing on a selective basis."

Airbus expects to provide "not more than €1 billion [$1.4 billion]" in customer financing, he adds.

Enders says that it is important that Airbus focuses on "keeping stable to avoid big ruptures" in its workforce. Airbus delivered a record 483 aircraft last year and although it has slowed its ramp-up, is on course to deliver a similar number this year.

"The whole supply chain depends on us, and when we talk about high production rates we should not forget that the best support we can give our suppliers is to have a relatively high, stable, delivery stream."

However, Airbus chief operating officer Fabrice Bregier admits that the airframer needs to convince its suppliers it has adjusted production rates sufficiently, based on its evaluation of customer delivery requirements.

"We consider we have better visibility than our suppliers," he says. "We don't want to build whitetails. So we are giving the suppliers information on the quality of our backlog and I think we can convince them during the show that we are the [appropriate] rates."

Should Airbus have to cut rates, the way it will manage its workforce adjustments will vary from country to country because of different social rules, says Bregier. "We have more flexibility for example in Germany than in Spain, but we have other commercial solutions. If necessary we will reduce the interim workforce and if the crisis is deeper then we will use other soft social measures like short-time working to keep all our skilled resources ready for the ramp-up."

However, Bregier points out that the situation is "contrasted" across Airbus's various plants, as for example the newly created divisions Aerolia in France and Premium Aerotec in Germany "are recruiting massively engineers in support of the A350 programme".

Source: Flight Daily News

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