Airbus Updates on Election of Partners for Sites

Airbus CEO Tom Enders today informed the Airbus European Works Council that the company has made good progress over the last few months in its efforts to select partners for the A350 XWB programme, who would also take over some of Airbus' current sites. These are wide-ranging and long-term partnerships to any being offered to their suppliers. The process for selecting site partners is progressing. Out of the eleven initial bidders, who made an offer, five are currently retained. Airbus continues the combined site and A350 risk sharing partners (RSP) negotiations with GKN, Latecoere, Spirit, Voith and MT Aerospace. The international bidding process was announced in February and officially launched in May. It consists of an international process for the selection of partners for the Airbus sites of Filton (UK), Meaulte and St Nazaire Ville (France), Nordenham and Varel (Germany), and in parallel an international bidding process for A350 XWB first tier supplier work packages. There is also a site sale process for Laupheim (Germany) underway.