Airbus begins construction on A350 FAL, promises 2013 delivery

Airbus began construction on the A350 XWB final assembly line in Toulouse yesterday, with President and CEO Tom Enders saying the manufacturer "is making steady progress" on the next-generation aircraft program and is on track "for first delivery in 2013."

The 74,000-sq.-m. factory is where the fuselage and wings will be joined, Airbus said, while aircraft testing and cabin equipping will be completed in the nearby A330/A340 facility.

When fully operational, the A350 FAL will be staffed with 1,000 workers. It will cost €140 million ($185.9 million) to construct. The manufacturer said the FAL will feature a "new streamlined aircraft assembly process [allowing] teams to work in parallel, reducing the time from start of final assembly to aircraft delivery by 30%."

Enders told reporters during a news conference yesterday that multiple delays on the A380 program "taught us some tough lessons" that will be valuable going forward. "That experience and the lessons learned from it. . . put us in a much stronger position," he said.

COO Fabrice Bregier conceded that Airbus will face unexpected "problems" in A350 development and manufacturing, but insisted that it has "changed the mindset of our people" from the A380 program's development and early manufacturing period. Then the company was plagued by an atmosphere in which workers and officials insisted to senior management that "there is no problem" when in fact there were numerous trouble spots, he said. Now all workers have been instructed to "tell us the truth [and] warn us of problems. We [will] know what's going on because people know we expect the truth."

Didier Evard, head of the A350 program, said, "This plane must enter service in 2013. We have sold 478 so far [to 29 customers] and it is out of the question that we can be late."