Where is the A350F built?

Manufacturing the new freighter version of Airbus’ highly successful A350 platform is a global affair. While parts production takes place around the world, assembly is concentrated in Airbus’ four core countries of France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. Let’s take a closer look at this production jigsaw puzzle. 

Where is the A350F built? 

Like every Airbus aircraft, the new freighter is the fruit of an industrial collaboration that reaches beyond the European continent. Based on the widebody A350-1000 airframe, the A350F’s major components are manufactured around the world.

Aircraft manufacturing: a cross-border ballet  

The A350F is built from major components manufactured across Airbus’ home nations. This European industrial approach, established over six decades, guarantees quality and reliability.

Each ‘home nation’ has its own area of expertise:

United Kingdom

The world flies on Airbus wings engineered in Filton and manufactured in Broughton, United Kingdom, including the A350’s massive carbon-fibre wingset. Additionally, Filton serves as the production site for the A350F’s equipped gear beam, a critical structural component of the aircraft. Learn more about Airbus in the United Kingdom

 

Spain

Spain contributes the rear fuselage, horizontal stabiliser (also known as the horizontal tail plane, or HTP), lower wing cover, belly fairing and the freighter’s 4.3 metre-wide main deck cargo door. Learn more about Airbus Commercial Aircraft in Spain

France

In France, our site in Saint-Eloi, Toulouse produces the engine pylons. Airbus Atlantic’s plants deliver vital aerostructures for the A350F: complex elementary parts (Saint-Nazaire), main landing gear bay (Rochefort), centre wing box, air inlets and keel beam (Nantes), and nose fuselage (Méaulte). Airbus Atlantic’s Montoir-de-Bretagne site delivers fully equipped and tested front and centre fuselages to the final assembly line (FAL) in Toulouse. France is also where the final pieces of this giant industrial jigsaw fall into place in our Toulouse FAL. Learn more about Airbus in France

Germany

Germany's industrial expertise is integral to the A350F’s structural framework. This  encompasses major components such as the forward and aft fuselage sections produced by Airbus Aerostructures in Stade, Augsburg and Nordenham and assembled in Hamburg; the vertical tail plane (VTP); and upper wing covers. Germany’s contribution extends to fuselage and wing equipping, as well as the main deck cargo door's surround structure and actuation system. Learn more about Airbus in Germany

The A350F: made around the world, shipped to Europe 

Aerospace is a global business and the A350’s complex supply chain reflects this. For example, while fuselage sub-assemblies are largely built in Europe, some of their component panels are made in the US at specialist facilities that joined the Airbus family in 2025 through the integration of Spirit AeroSystems assets. 

Of course, manufacturing and transporting all these parts is only half the story. They are eventually transported to the A350 Final Assembly Line in Toulouse, France, by air, land and sea. This vast operation includes ocean-going vessels and the legendary Airbus BelugaXL air transporter. A cargo aircraft, carried inside a cargo aircraft! 

The next chapter begins in Toulouse, where they finally meet to be transformed into the A350F. More about that next time!