Airbus will open a new factory in the Toulouse region in 2031

The European aircraft manufacturer Airbus plans to commission an additional factory in France, near Toulouse (south), in 2031, which should employ 3,500 people, to manufacture engine masts, a “strategic part” which attaches an engine to the wing of an aircraft, he detailed on Tuesday.

The factory must be located on land belonging to the company, currently operated by farmers in the south of the commune of Cornebarrieu, on the edge of that of Colomiers. Airbus has named this future site “Saint-Éloi of the future”. It will complement the production of another factory, “Saint-Éloi historique”, in Toulouse.

The engine mast “is a structural part, it is also a safety part. And overall, it is a strategic part for the manufacturing and delivery of aircraft,” declared the director of Airbus industrial sites in Toulouse, Christophe Agostini, during a videoconference with the press.

“More than 200,000 m² will be industrialized,” he added. This new site is expected to employ 3,500 people and would represent a “global investment volume” which “would exceed 600 million euros”.

The city site in Toulouse, which can no longer increase its capacity, will not be sufficient for the planned growth in Airbus production. The aircraft manufacturer is aiming for a production record in 2026, after that established in 2019, when it delivered 863 aircraft.

Demand for its aircraft, fueled mainly by the great commercial success of the A320 single-aisle family, continues to grow. Airbus, which has 14,660 planes in service worldwide, has a full order book, which is approaching 27,000 units.

A consultation and public debate procedure was launched on November 24 to allow local residents and stakeholders to give their opinion on the “Saint-Éloi du futur” project.

Airbus employs some 160,000 people worldwide, including around 33,000 in the Toulouse metropolitan area, the city where aeronautics pioneers, Pierre Latécoère and Émile Dewoitine, settled after the First World War.