Airbus is temporarily pausing its production of airplanes in Mobile due to the coronavirus pandemic.
According to a company news release, all of the company’s manufacturing of the A220/A320-series of planes at its Mobile manufacturing plant will be temporary halted until “not earlier than April 29.” The stoppage is effective this week. The reason for the stoppage, according to the company, is due to “high inventory levels” and “various government recommendations and requirements which impact different stages of the overall industrial production flow."
The company says that certain activities will continue at the Mobile site including building and facilities maintenance, aircraft maintenance, some critical product-safety and customer-drive operations, receipt and control of materials and components, critical administrative support and activities needed in preparation of restarting the operations. Those who remain at the Mobile plant will continue to adhere to social distancing measures.
According to Kristi Tucker, spokeswoman at Airbus, there will be no layoffs during this time period. The company had announced, in January, that it was adding 275 new jobs this year to its Mobile plant as it continued to ramp up production of its popular single-aisle A320-family of planes with the hopes of reaching a production rate of seven per month.
Airbus employs around 1,000 workers in Mobile. It opened the manufacturing plant in Mobile in 2015.
“There are no plans for staff reductions or layoffs at the Mobile (final assembly plant) at this time,” she said. “Those employees who can work remotely will continue to do so. Those who cannot work remotely will continue to be paid during the three-week pause.”
Airbus doesn’t anticipate the pause negatively affecting the company’s ability to meet aircraft demands to U.S. customers.
The company announced on Monday it was also temporarily halting production at two German manufacturing sites – from April 6-27 in Bremen and April 5-11 in Stade.
Within the past two weeks, Airbus -- the world’s No. 1 airplane manufacturing -- paused production and assembly work in France and Spain for four days to implement stringent health and safety measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Production and assembly in France has resumed gradually since March 23.
Also halted are commercial aircraft wing production operations in the United Kingdom and commercial aircraft production in Spain and Canada.
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