Airbus announced on 22 March that it expects production and assembly work to partially resume at its French and Spanish sites on Monday 23 March following health and safety checks and implementation of stringent measures due to coronavirus.

The implementation of these measures temporary paused production and assembly activities in Spain and France for a period of four days.

Work stations will only reopen if they comply with the new health and safety measures in terms of hygiene, cleaning and self-distancing while improving the efficiency of operations under new working conditions, Airbus says. The same measures are being deployed across all other sites without full interruption.

The company’s final assembly line in Tianjin, China is now operating efficiently following the reopening of the facility in February.

Supporting global crisis efforts

Airbus also revealed it has donated thousands of face masks to hospitals and public services around Europe over the past few days. The manufacturer used the first flight of its test A330-800 aircraft at the weekend to transport approximately two million masks from Tianjin to Europe, with additional flights planned to take place in the coming days.

Airbus says the large majority will be donated to the Spanish and French authorities.

“Health and safety is our number one priority at Airbus so the work stations at our sites in France and Spain will only re-open if they meet the required standards”, said Airbus chief executive officer Guillaume Faury.

“I’d like to salute the strong commitment from our employees to ensure business continuity in close cooperation with our social partners and other stakeholders.”

“At the same time, we are doing all we can to support those on the frontline to fight the coronavirus and limit its spread.

“We try to live up to our values, humbled by the complexity of the situation, and contribute as much as we can to society in these very difficult times.”