Airbus has inaugurated its new A320 family final assembly line in Toulouse. The aircraft manufacturer says the new final assembly line (FAL) has a variety of innovative features that aim to maximise product quality and efficiency and establish new standards for health, safety and sustainability, including digital production control using tablets and smartphones to reduce paper consumption, automated logistics for parts distribution and lightweight robots for joining sections.
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said: “The inauguration of this new A321-capable final assembly line in Toulouse represents another milestone in the ongoing modernisation of our global industrial system. This FAL will contribute to the ongoing production rate ramp-up to 75 A320 family aircraft per month in 2026, while meeting the increased demand for A321s, which currently represents around 60 per cent of the total A320 family backlog.
“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 of them capable of assembling the A321.”
According to Airbus, the new final assembly line initially started operations at the end of 2022 with the delivery of the first fuselage sections and the rollout of the first fully assembled aircraft in this facility is expected by the end of this year.
