Paris (AFP)

Airbus, whose production rates collapsed with the Covid-19 pandemic, announced Thursday that it would produce more A320 and A220 single-aisle aircraft in 2023 than before the health crisis.

The European aircraft manufacturer has informed its suppliers to "prepare for the future by securing a firm rate of 64" A320 family aircraft per month "by the second quarter of 2023", according to a statement.

When the pandemic broke out, it was producing 60 per month and was preparing to increase in 2020 to 63 monthly devices.

But faced with the collapse of air traffic, the inability of airlines to take delivery of their planes and their financial difficulties, he announced from the start of the pandemic a drop in its rates of 40%.

"The aviation sector is starting to recover from the Covid-19 crisis," said Airbus executive chairman Guillaume Faury, quoted in the press release.

The aircraft manufacturer "continues to count on a return to pre-crisis levels between 2023 and 2025 for the commercial aircraft market, driven by the single-aisle segment."

It therefore "informs its suppliers about its production planning, thus giving visibility in order to plan the necessary investments and to secure" their production capacities ".

Airbus currently produces 40 A320 Family aircraft (A319, A320 and A321) per month and expects to produce 43 per month in the third quarter and 45 in the fourth.

"In anticipation of a market recovery, Airbus is also asking its suppliers to allow a rate scenario of 70 (monthly aircraft) by Q1 (first quarter, editor's note) 2024. In the longer term, Airbus is studying opportunities speeds of up to 75 planes per month by 2025 ", he explains.

The A320 family aircraft are produced on eight assembly lines: two in Toulouse, four in Hamburg (Germany), one in Mobile and one in Tianjin (China).

For the aircraft manufacturer, this ramp-up must in particular be made possible by the modernization by the end of 2022 of one of its assembly lines in Toulouse, in order to enable it to assemble both A320s and A321s.

The project announced in January 2020 had been put on hold due to the pandemic.

It was relaunched there in early May.

The A321, with 2,963 aircraft on order at the end of April, now represents almost half of the order book for the aircraft manufacturer's single-aisle aircraft.

© 2021 AFP