Commercial Aircraft in Germany

Excelling in aircraft materials and assembly

As one of Airbus' four founding nations, Germany is home to seven major Commercial Aircraft production facilities.

They are Hamburg, Bremen, Nordenham, Stade, Varel, Buxtehude and Augsburg.

From A320 Family production and assembly to expertise in carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP), 3D titanium printing or advanced cabin solutions, Germany plays a key role in Airbus commercial aircraft programmes

7 sites

Hamburg, Bremen, Nordenham, Stade, Augsburg, Buxtehude, Varel

4 regions

Hamburg, Bremen, Niedersachsen and Bayern

31,000 employees

Airbus Commercial Aircraft in Germany employs approximately 31,000 people

Hamburg

As the principal Airbus Commercial Aircraft site in Germany, the Hamburg plant employs over 18,000 people.

Created in 1933 on the banks of the Elbe, the site plays a key role in the development, production and assembly of the A320, A330 and A350 aircraft families.
Hamburg is an Airbus Centre of Competence for fuselage and cabin. The site operates state-of-the-art structural assembly lines featuring robotics, laser positioning and enhanced ergonomics.
Hamburg drives the A321XLR programme, integrating its Rear Centre Tank (RCT) within highly automated hangars.
The site leads major component and final assembly for the A320 Family with its four final assembly lines and delivers A320 Family aircraft to customers around the world.
Hamburg assembles and equips forward and rear fuselage sections for the A330 and A350.
The site is home to the Airspace Customer Definition Centre, which showcases all the latest technologies for a faster and easier cabin definition process, across the A320, A330 and A350 families.
The Hamburg site also houses A320 Family maintenance training facilities that receive hundreds of airline trainees every year.
Satair, an Airbus subsidiary, operates a large spares centre close to the commercial airport of Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel which holds proprietary parts, as well as a 24/7 spares call centre for customers from around the world.

Aerial photo Hamburg-Finkenwerder June 2022
MSN10000 in FAL

A321neo in FAL at Hamburg site
Hamburg final assembly line
Painting an aircraft
0:02:41

Airbus in Hamburg
A321XLR equipping
Cabin definition centre Hamburg
Acoustic flight lab Hamburg
Final assembly line Hamburg

Factory tour for individual guests and mini groups

Bremen

Celebrating 100 years of aircraft production in 2024, the Bremen site employs around 5,000 people, of which 2,850 for Commercial Aircraft.

Bremen is specialised in the high-lift systems for all Airbus aircraft. These are the moveable components that enable aircraft to take off and land at lower speeds.
Teams assemble flaps for Airbus commercial aircraft programmes (with the exception of the A220), as well as equipping the A330 and A350 wings with flight-critical components and systems.
Bremen excels in producing complex metallic and thermoplastic components made from carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP), using the world’s largest thermoplastic press.
Finally, Bremen hosts two key centres for the future of the aerospace industry. They are: the Centre for Eco-Efficient Materials and Technologies (ECOMAT) and the OpenCargoLab which drives safety improvements across the entire Airbus cargo fleet.

Aerials Bremen 2024
Aerials Bremen 2024
Airbus in Bremen
Bremen technology and digitalisation
Bremen component CFRP production
Bremen-metallic technology
Bremen-metallic components production
Airbus in Bremen
Airbus in Bremen
Airbus in Bremen

Factory tour for individual guests and mini groups

Nordenham Metallic Assembly

Nordenham

Nordenham manufactures around 5,000 fuselage shells annually, spanning both metallic and CFRP materials.

Nordenham is a centre of competence for highly automated structural assembly for the A320, A330 and A350 aircraft families.
Using advanced techniques such as friction stir welding, 3D milling, automated riveting and bonding techniques, the site continues to pioneer digitalised manufacturing processes.

Airbus in Nordenham
Airbus in Nordenham
Nordenham Elementary Parts

Stade

Drawing on over 30 years of production experience, the Stade site specialises in developing and manufacturing large-scale carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) structures.

The plant produces vertical tail planes for the A320, A330 and A350 aircraft families.
Equipped with the one of the world’s largest autoclaves, Stade produces A350 fuselage shells and the aircraft’s wing upper cover. This is one of the largest CFRP components in the world.
Stade is home to Airbus’ Resin Transfer Moulding (RTM) Composite Development Centre.
RTM is a process for producing high-performance composite components. The Centre focuses on liquid hydrogen fuel tank demonstrators and automated RTM technologies for high-rate production.

Airbus in Stade
VTP Airbus in Stade
Airbus in Stade
Lower and upper shells A350F Airbus in Stade
Airbus in Stade

Factory tours for the Stade sites

Ausburg Airbus site

Augsburg

Founded in 1916, this site focuses on the manufacturing and assembly of fuselage parts and structural components for commercial aircraft.

Manufacturing over five million components per year Augsburg is characterised by its technological versatility and CFRP expertise.
Augsburg produces fuselage shells, section assemblies and pressure bulkheads for the A320, A330 and the A350 aircraft families.
One of the site’s core products is the A321XLR’s rear centre tank.

Airbus in Augsburg
Celebration A330 neo, Premium Aerotec, Augsburg
Ausburg Airbus site

Airbus in Buxtehude

Buxtehude

Established in 1990, Buxtehude is a centre of excellence for cabin and cargo electronics.

The site employs more than 500 people and 30 apprentices and dual students.
The plant’s core focus is the design and production of the power and data backbone systems for cabin crew and passenger operations.
Buxtehude hosts Airbus subsidiary KID-SYSTEME, a supplier of smart digital cabin solutions for both Airbus and the broader global aviation market.

Airbus in Buxtehude
Buxtehude Aerial

Varel Airbus site

Varel

Founded in 1936, Varel site specialises in high-precision machining, door and gate frame assembly, and metallic 3D printing.

Each year, around three million components leave Varel for both civil and military Airbus aircraft programmes.
At the heart of operations is the Door Surround Centre, producing ready-to-install structural modules for the A320, A330 and A350 aircraft families.
Varel is a pioneer in additive manufacturing of titanium parts. The site has established its expertise in two distinct 3D printing processes: powder bed fusion and directed energy deposition (DED), which enables the production of large-scale structural components.

Airbus in Varel
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Airbus in Varel
Airbus in Varel
Airbus in Varel
Airbus in Varel

Glückspfennig - a joint Airbus and employee initiative

Through its ‘Glückspfennig’, or ‘lucky penny’, initiative, Commercial Aircraft in Germany and its employees support charitable and non-profit projects in the vicinity of their sites.

Every month, participating employees donate the cents from their net monthly pay. The company matches the money raised.

A donations committee, comprising employees from the participating Airbus sites in Germany as well as representatives of the company and the Group Works Council, decides how these ‘Glückspfennige’ are allocated.