A220 News

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With A220 output set to climb, Airbus eyes additional facility in Mirabel

News provided by the Montreal Gazette – link to full story

The new line will likely start operating sometime around 2021, CEO Philippe Balducchi says. Airbus has ample land in Mirabel to expand.

FRÉDÉRIC TOMESCO – July 18, 2019

About 2,500 employees now work on Airbus’s A220 in Mirabel, up from about 2,200 a year ago. PASCAL ROSSIGNOL / REUTERS

Airbus is leaning toward building a new plant in Mirabel within about two years to speed up production of the jetliner formerly known as the C Series.

The proposed pre-assembly facility will be tasked with preparing complete sections of the A220 plane before they are moved to the final assembly line. A decision on whether to proceed with the investment will be make in the coming weeks, according to Philippe Balducchi, chief executive officer of the Airbus Canada Limited Partnership.

“Our goal with this pre-assembly facility is to protect the final assembly line,” Balducchi told the Montreal Gazette Thursday in a telephone interview from Toulouse, France, where Airbus is based. “We are very probably going to build this pre-assembly facility, and we will do it in Mirabel.”

The new line will probably start operating sometime around 2021, Balducchi said. Airbus has ample land in Mirabel to expand, he added.

“People who fly the A220 like it and they want more,” Airbus Canada CEO Philippe Balducchi says. JPG

Airbus inherited Bombardier’s Mirabel facilities a year ago when it took control of the Montreal-based company’s C Series program, which it later renamed the A220. Bombardier retains a 34-per-cent stake in the partnership, while the Quebec government owns 16 per cent.

About 2,500 employees now work on the A220 in Mirabel, up from about 2,200 a year ago. While hiring for the program will continue in the months ahead, “it won’t be massive,” Balducchi said.

Having shipped 21 A220s in the first half of the year, Airbus is aiming to reach about 45 deliveries for all of 2019. Mirabel’s capacity is about 120 planes a year.

Output should climb further next year when a second A220 final assembly line in Mobile, Ala., begins deliveries. The first plane sections have already arrived in Mobile, and assembly work will begin in the coming weeks, Balducchi said. When fully operational, the U.S. factory will be capable of building up to 50 jets per year.

In the meantime, Airbus has begun negotiating with suppliers in a bid to lower production costs of the A220 by more than 10 per cent. In exchange, Airbus can offer suppliers higher volumes as orders pile up for the jet.

“This is a clear effort to reduce costs,” Balducchi said. “We’ve started engaging our suppliers on this, and have reached some agreements. We are looking for double-digit reductions, and we see a lot of potential. We’re also ready to discuss improvements and changes in design with our suppliers in an effort to reduce costs, as long as it doesn’t impact the performance of the plane.”

Prospects for the A220 and its suppliers have been buoyed by last month’s announcement at the Paris Air Show that U.S. carriers Delta Air Lines and JetBlue were ordering additional units of the jet.

“Delta already operates the plane, which shows that people who fly the A220 like it and they want more,” Balducchi said. “Today, we see appetite from airlines in every region of the world.”

Airbus Canada’s CEO is also encouraged by recent commitments from leasing specialists Air Lease Corp. and Nordic Aviation Capital, which should result in the A220 being deployed at new airlines over the coming years.

“ALC and Nordic are very influential lessors, and they are going to allow us to accelerate the dissemination of the plane,” he said. “In the future we will see new orders because of these successes we had in Paris.”

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FLYHT and L3Harris extend their agreement to provide SATCOM products on the Airbus A220 family

 

‎Today, ‎August ‎1, ‎2019, ‏‎27 minutes ago | Canadian Aviation News

Provided by FLYHT Aerospace Solutions Ltd/Globe Newswire

CALGARY, Alberta, Aug. 01, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — FLYHT announced L3Harris Technologies has extended its partnership and agreement to provide custom engineering services used in global voice and data satellite communication (SATCOM) solutions (See press release dated July 15, 2014). Specifically, FLYHT will customize L3Harris AFIRS^TM 228S (Automated Flight Information Recording System) to support global communications between pilots and Air Traffic Control (ATC), Aeronautical Operation control (AOC) and Airline Administrative Control (AAC) through the Iridium® high-fidelity satellite network used in the cockpit of the Airbus A220.

“We are very excited to expand our relationship with L3Harris,” stated Tom Schmutz, CEO of FLYHT Aerospace. “Extending our coverage to Airbus’ newest aircraft family member with L3Harris makes sense for both partners. Our relationship so far has resulted in the shipment of over 1,500 units to Airbus.”

L3Harris is the prime contractor selected to provide AFIRS 228S integrated telecom and global voice and data communications using the Iridium® satellite network. This network provides high quality and high-fidelity voice and data connections globally, including across oceans and desolate regions.

“Our relationship with FLYHT allows us to deliver reliable SATCOM solutions which enable global, critical voice and data communications for pilots,” said Terry Flaishans, President of L3Harris Avionics.

The relationship between the parties continues indefinitely (unless terminated in accordance with the agreement) and the financial impact of this amendment will be measured according to future purchase orders between the parties which FLYHT will appropriately disclose.

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Airbus opens second A220 line as assemblies start at Mobile

• 05 August, 2019
• SOURCE: FlightGlobal.com
• BY: Jon Hemmerdinger
• Boston

Airbus has started assembling A220s at its Alabama facility, a milestone coming nearly two years after the European airframer announced its intention to open a US A220 manufacturing site.

The company has "officially begun manufacturing the A220 in the US", with work commencing on an A220-300 that Airbus intends to deliver to Delta Air Lines in the third quarter of next year.

Airbus describes the start of US A220 production as evidence of its position as a top US manufacturer and of its increasingly global manufacturing footprint.

"With Mobile, and our production network in Asia, Canada and Europe, we have strategically created a worldwide industrial base to better serve our customers," says Airbus Americas chief executive Jeffrey Knittel.

A220 workers in Mobile recently completed training in Mirabel, Canada – home of the original A220 production line, Airbus says.

Earlier this year Airbus began constructing the A220 assembly hangar and other related facilities in Mobile, though the company is using some existing A320 buildings to assemble "the first few" A220s, it says.

Airbus's production facility in Mobile, where the company makes A320s and A220s

Airbus

The first large A220 components, including the cockpit and a fuselage section, arrived at the Mobile site in June.

The start of US A220 production comes despite initial scepticism that Airbus would make good on its US A220 plans.

Airbus announced its intention to open the Mobile A220 site as part of its October 2017 proposed acquisition of the programme, then called CSeries, from Bombardier.

The acquisition came amid threats the USA would impose significant tariffs on CSeries imports – retaliation for Bombardier receiving billions of dollars in government financial support.

Those tariffs threatened Bombardier's already-announced sale of at least 75 A220s to Delta.

Airbus's plan to assemble A220s at the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley, where it already assembles A320 family aircraft, appeared a means to bypass tariffs.

But Bombardier won the trade dispute, eliminating the threat of tariffs. And Airbus, after closing the acquisition last year, still moved forward with its Mobile plan.