The Airbus story continues. In the Jean-Luc Lagardère hall in Blagnac, near Toulouse, where Airbus assembled the legendary A380, whose production was stopped in 2021, a grand inauguration took place on Monday July 10, in the presence of Bruno The Mayor, Minister of Economy and Clément Beaune, Minister of Transport. It was a question of celebrating, under the huge poster paying homage to the A380, a new ultramodern final assembly line (FAL) for the A320 and A321 aircraft. An investment that will allow the European aviation giant to achieve a higher rate of production of its star machines. Airbus aims to reach a rate of 75 single-aisle products produced per month in 2026, compared to an average of 45 at the end of 2022. This “new factory” in Toulouse, which comes in addition to the eight other assembly lines of the giant Airbus in the world, will employ around 700 people by 2025. On this occasion, Le Point brought together Carole Delga, President of the Occitanie region and Guillaume Faury, Executive Chairman of Airbus to discuss industry, French competitiveness, decarbonization of aviation, training, etc.
Le Point: For Airbus and Toulouse, today is a day of celebration. This would tend to prove that the industry is not dead, that it has a future in France…
Guillaume Faury: Yes, Airbus is proving it today with this investment which projects the Toulouse site into the future. The industry is very much alive in Europe and in our country. Aeronautics is a sector where Europe, France and Occitania are particularly competitive and are writing important pages in history. It is, for many, a story of innovation but it is also a team story. First, Europe. Airbus would not exist if countries had not come together to live a common adventure, the size of the continent. Then, France and the region. Once we have put together investments and skills, we have to bring projects, products and technologies to life locally. It is an industry in which partnerships between companies and public authorities are essential, because you have to share a long-term vision, coordinate players, train people, etc. We demonstrate with Airbus that yes, we can be industrially competitive in Europe and in France, it is the result of the work of a whole team that integrates private business and public authorities.
Carole Delga: This is where the future of the industry is being written. France and Europe have an industrial advantage in the aeronautics sectors, which is called Airbus, which is both a technological demonstration and the expression of a European conviction. We should congratulate ourselves on the very good results of the company and its strategy which consists in always being one step ahead of its competitors. It is in good times, like today, that the foundations must be laid to respond to the various changes facing the aviation sector. As President of the Region, I believe that our future in France and in Europe lies within the framework of industry. As a leader in aeronautics, Airbus must reinvest in new fields, which amounts to focusing on the issue of decarbonization. But to succeed in this bet, you have to believe in progress and science, you have to have confidence in technology…
Do you sense a movement of defiance towards science?
C.D.: Yes, this distrust is very widespread in society and it is worrying. Decline is not a good thing for France. As a politician, I reaffirm my desire to create industrial sovereignty for our country and my confidence in science which will allow us to reconcile economy and ecology. It’s essential. Remember, the hydrogen plane, even three years ago, many people made fun of it, saying that it had no chance of seeing the light of day… Now, it no longer makes anyone laugh… We will get there ! The last Paris Air Show took a toll on the morale of skeptics and catastrophists.
For a business leader, what are the main obstacles to the development of industry in France and in Europe?
G.F.: The main obstacle is cost competitiveness in France and Western Europe. It must be said clearly, it is not good at all. We must therefore find other factors of competitiveness, linked to innovation, to technological excellence, this is how we can make the difference. But this implies having a vision, being able to take risks and that the different actors are aligned. And, with Airbus, we demonstrate that when we achieve this, success breeds success. Afterwards, when we miss opportunities at European level, it is very difficult to catch up. So we have to focus on the future and not miss anything…
The United States has a strike force, in particular financial, in terms of investment, which Europe does not have…
G.F. When we are, in Europe, in a logic where each country protects its own interests, when we are in a logic of competition more than of coordination or cooperation, obviously, we do not create the effect of scale that can have a continent like the United States or China. If there had been a commercial aircraft manufacturer in France, then another in Germany, then another in Spain, and yet another in Great Britain, there would be none today. It is because we put our skills together that we brought out a player with the power of Airbus. With Airbus, we have shown that, when we have the critical size, we are quite capable of being much better than everyone else. Airbus has taken the competitive advantage in aviation, we must now keep it and project ourselves into the future, for example with the hydrogen plane. We must maintain a long-term vision like that of the original founders of Airbus. It took a long time for the first Airbus aircraft to become competitive. Remember when the engineers and managers of Airbus made the choice, very adventurous and disruptive at the time, to put electric flight controls on the A320s…. It is finally thanks to this major innovation, to this risk-taking that we have an aircraft which, even today, is the world leader in its category and for which we are inaugurating a new production line in Toulouse.
How many new jobs will be created by this new channel?
G.F. Directly, there are approximately 700 jobs, and several thousand indirectly, with local suppliers who come to support us.
C.D.: Airbus is an ecosystem. Airbus alone employs 29,000 people in Occitanie, more than half of Airbus’ workforce in France. Training and recruitment are subjects to which we are very committed in the Region. We need a training system that is extremely effective at European level. We must invest heavily, and more particularly promote scientific studies. At the time of the reform of the baccalaureate in France, I personally opposed the fact that mathematics was no longer in the common core but became an option… In France, people drop out of scientific studies, it is quite the opposite that it is must do. We need more technicians, more engineers, we need them. If we want a competitive industry, we first need well-trained women and men, especially since the challenges are great in terms of green industry…
But the industry often suffers from a bad image in French society…
C.D.: It is also our mission, in the regions, to present and promote jobs in the industry. Because, even today, in the collective imagination, industrial jobs are sometimes presented as painful… We still have the impression of being in Zola when that era is well over, we are in the world of Industry 4.0. The industry needs talent, and we, the politicians, must put in place proposals that make it possible to meet their needs. As President of the Region, I am in constant dialogue with companies, whether large groups but also SMEs, ETIs, start-ups. We must accompany them. In Occitania, I gain 42,000 new inhabitants each year. Consequence: I have to create 25,000 jobs a year so that unemployment does not increase! And jobs are created by companies! With companies, the region forms a pack that moves forward together, like in rugby.
G.F.: I think the industry doesn’t necessarily have a good press in national education. On the other hand, in home environments, if you talk to people who work in the industry, the impression is excellent.
The relationship of the French with Airbus is ambivalent, complex. The aviation sector is decried for its polluting nature, and at the same time, the company is incredibly attractive, it is awash in CVs every year…
G.F.: Yes, we are #1 in attractiveness. Aviation is contested, it is true, but only by a small fraction of young people. And just because these kids are screaming loudly doesn’t mean there are more of them!
C.D.: You should know that the population that flies the most is young people. Because it remains an extraordinary way to discover Europe and the world.
But you don’t fear, all the same, the consequences of this “plane bashing”?
G.F.: No, it’s more a source of motivation that encourages us to accelerate on the decarbonization of our industry. Once again, I don’t think this reflects a lack of love for the plane. We had proof of this at the Paris Air Show, there is extraordinary popular enthusiasm. Of course, there are some extremists who say that we must stop stealing at all, that it’s the end of the world, that we must stop everything and who promote degrowth. But, on the other side of the spectrum, there are people who are passionate, convinced that technology will allow us to overcome challenges. Take the early history of aviation… In 1895, Lord Kelvin, a British physicist, said that it was physically impossible to fly airplanes because they are heavier than air. Failed… We demonstrate every day that it is possible and that the plane is an extremely efficient means of transport: 2 liters per 100 km per passenger for the planes we deliver today!
The green plane will soon be a reality?
G.F.: Yes, we already have the decarbonization roadmap. It is known, shared, communicated at European and global level. A carbon-free plane is the best means of transport from the point of view of respect for the environment because there is no infrastructure to be built on the ground in the path of the plane. A commercial aviation system has a much less impact than a railway system, for example, which damages ecosystems, fauna and flora over thousands of kilometres… Our infrastructure is the air. We need men and women to talk to each other on this planet. We have seen that for a year, because of the Covid, communications have stopped a bit, and the geopolitical consequences of this have been devastating… We must therefore reconcile aviation and decarbonization! We know how to do it but we need a lot of people to help us do it and a lot of money too, because it’s still a huge challenge.
C.D.: My role as Regional President is also to invest in projects. We become a shareholder of companies that are launching into electric aircraft, for example, 4 or 19 seats. We are also at the forefront of sustainable fuels. Last January, the Region signed a protocol to develop sustainable fuels with a consortium of which Airbus and Safran are part. It is essential to work on biofuels. We are also supporting, in terms of investment, the hydrogen techno campus project which will be installed at the former Toulouse-Francazal military airport. We can also mention in Figeac, the project of an operational training center in direct contact with the needs of companies in the area, such as Figeac Aéro and Ratier Figeac. Finally, ten days ago I laid the first stone of the largest green hydrogen production plant in Port-la-Nouvelle, in Aude.
G.F.: There is a common desire to achieve this in Occitania. It is important for Airbus, when making such investments, to have the certainty of being supported over the long term. Because when in certain situations, the people who prevent the projects from moving forward are stronger than those who want to move them forward, well, we fail and the industrialists will set up their factories elsewhere, in other more welcoming countries.
Do you think the level of investment in public and private research is sufficient in France?
G.F.: It’s never enough… But we have a very effective tool, the research tax credit, which absolutely must be preserved. It’s one of our competitive advantages in France, and we don’t have many others… We don’t have it in terms of production costs, nor in terms of energy costs, especially not since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 24, 2022.
C.D.: Occitanie is the only French region that appears in the ranking of the twenty European regions that invest the most in research and development. It is a great pride for us. We need to create European industrial giants, that’s fundamental. I therefore defend the creation of a railway Airbus. There are too many players, CAF in Spain, Siemens in Germany, Alstom in France… We have to work together to counter the Chinese giant in the sector, CCRC. It is the global geopolitical balance that is at stake.
The C919 plane, from your Chinese competitor COMAC, has been flying for a few weeks. Are you afraid of it?
G.F.: Yes, that’s it, it entered service and flies daily between Shanghai and Chengdu, and we must recognize that this represents a real success for China. The Chinese took a very long-term view and invested a lot of money in this project.
Will you keep the edge?
G.F.: You are never sure of keeping the advantage. You have to have this fear of others to run fast, invest, innovate, stay ahead… We are investing resolutely to prepare for the future, which will go through the decarbonization of the sector. It is not the first time that a third player has knocked on the door of Airbus and Boeing… The others have failed but the Chinese have the means to succeed, Chinese airlines are state-owned and therefore can support the national manufacturer. Above all, this competition should not be taken lightly.
Airbus signed a giant contract in India a few weeks ago. But some voices are raised to limit the development of aviation in emerging countries, to limit the effects on pollution.
C.D.: This kind of talk revolts me. Once again, we must have confidence in science and we must never forget that we cannot sever the links between people. Declining visions… Very little for me… First, we must not forget that the plane connects civilizations, participates in the knowledge of the other, in the discovery of the unknown, contributes to wonder. Then, by what right would we deny the inhabitants of emerging countries the ability to dream? Denying the plane to part of the world’s population means that we would act on the stall between peoples. It’s not acceptable !
G.F.: These countries say: but why would you deny us the right to develop? And then, it should be remembered that the countries that have emitted the most carbon, until today, are neither India nor China but the United States and Europe. They are the ones who have historically been the first responsible for global warming.
C.D.: Our responsibility is immense. European industry has a huge responsibility in climate action. If we can’t decarbonize aviation, who will in the years to come? We have no choice, we will, collectively, get there.
