EADS chief executive Louis Gallois says the company has no plans to shift the final assembly line for the Airbus A330 to the USA to make way for A350 XWB production in Toulouse, in the wake of the US Air Force KC-45A tanker win.
"We are not for the time being planning to put passenger airplanes in Alabama," Gallois says. "We will have to find a way to make the assembly line as efficient as possible," he adds.
The company will carry out final assembly of A330 tanker and civilian freighter aircraft at the US site, following EADS and Northrop Grumman's award of a contract to supply 179 A330-based aerial refuellers to the USAF. Gallois says some space will be created naturally in Toulouse for the A350, due to enter service in 2013, as competition for A330 passenger aircraft intensifies once new-generation twinjets like the Boeing 787 and XWB are in production.
Source: Flight International
