Airbus goes green: Varel Workforce against partnership with Mubea | 04/26/22

The agreement reached by Airbus and representatives of its employees on the industrial reorganization of the aviation group failed.

After negotiations over the future of the individual parts business at Premium Aerotec at the Varel site, the aircraft manufacturer has announced that the Varel site workforce has not confirmed the recommendation of the working council, IG Metall and Airbus. I had spoken out against any partnership with the supplier Mubea, a supplier from Attendorn.

As an alternative to the partnership with Mobia, the individual parts production area will now be restructured within Airbus. Staying with Airbus means that terms of internal restructuring that have already been agreed and communicated will come into effect. This restructuring must be carried out without redundancy.

More talks are now scheduled between the negotiating partners to agree on the next steps.

Qatar Airways lost in court over the Airbus deal

Airbus has won a temporary victory in a dispute with its main customer, Qatar Airways. A British court on Tuesday allowed the manufacturer to cancel the airline’s order for 50 medium-range A321neo aircraft. Accordingly, Airbus may sell the series of machines ordered by Qatar Airways to other customers. Instead, the state-owned airline of the Arab emirate of Qatar had to get the planes it needed elsewhere. The airline has already signed a contract with Airbus’ rival Boeing.

In principle, the dispute was not about the famous jet aircraft A321neo, but about the paint and surface damage of the long-range Airbus A350. Qatar Airways filed a lawsuit against the European manufacturer in London in December over the defects. On the other hand, Airbus does not consider the problems to be safety related, but wanted to address the shortcomings. Qatar Airways is a major customer of Airbus. The company already has 53 A350s in its fleet and has an additional 23 aircraft on order.

The fuselage of the A350 is made largely of carbon fiber composites. Between the body and the outer coating there is a metallic cloth that protects against lightning strikes. Depending on the operating conditions, cracks in the paint or in this fabric appear on some aircraft of this type, according to Airbus.

Airbus’ stake in “Extra” was listed, trading up 1.42 percent at 104.62 euros.

Frankfurt (Dow Jones) / London / Toulouse (dpa-AFX)