The Airbus factory sentence in Puerto Real Albor is integrated into illerna to combine the largest face and online FP offer in Spain
"If Airbus closes a factory like Puerto Real's, the impact on Cádiz will be tremendous."Antonio Conde, president of the Aeronautical Business Council of Cádiz, cannot hide his pessimism in the face of the bad perspectives of the factory, with almost half a thousand workers in the workforce, after Airbus assured this week that he considers “difficult to maintain two production centers”in Cadiz.
With this, he ratified the message that the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the group, Michael Schöllhorn, moved to the Intercentros Committee Board, which represents all the factories of Spain.The decision to close Puerto Real is not yet taken, according to the president of Airbus Spain, Alberto Gutiérrez, the workers' representatives, but the truth is that both unions and the Gaditanian auxiliary industry that depends onAirbus assumes that it is nothing more than the beginning of a hard negotiation to try to retain the maximum work and employment load in the bay.
"Distributing the Port Real production lines between the CBC of El Puerto and other plants would be a way to fulfill the commitment that Guillaume Faury (CEO of Airbus) and Pedro Sánchez reached," explains Antonio Conde, referring to the meeting they heldTwo weeks ago the president of the Government and the first Airbus executive, in which the company agreed to "mitigate the loss of jobs as a consequence of the crisis."
For its part, Spain promised to promote an aeronautical technological plan linked to the recovery funds of the European Union endowed with 185 million euros until 2024 managed by the Spanish Innovation Agency (CDTI).To this figure are added another 150 million euros linked to partially reimbursable aid to “finance the maintenance and reinforcement of the current capacities of the aeronautical and defense sector in Spain and prepare the next generation of sustainable energy technologies and zero emissions”.
In addition, Spain will transform three A330 into resupply airplanes in flight for the Air Force, an operation that takes place in Getafe, and will acquire four C295 for maritime patrol, which are assembled in Seville and in which the CBC provides components.The Ministries of Defense and Interior will buy 36 H135 helicopters in a first phase of six years, expandable to 59 in a second phase for the Army and the State Security Forces and Bodies.Interior also undertakes to acquire four H160 helicopters in the next six years for the Civil Guard and the National Police.
Delocalization
The CBC of El Puerto de Santa María is a plant nominally attached to the Military Division, unlike Puerto Real, integrated into Airbus Operations.However, it participates in civil production lines such as the A320 NEO or the Boeing 737Max, for which it manufactures the coatings of the engines.
“The problem is that between the CBC and Puerto Real there are 800 jobs, and if they are grouped in the CBC, where there is space available, they would still continue to be left over a hundred positions.And if there is only one plant, auxiliary companies also see their work capacity reduced, ”warns the president of the employer.And not only the CBC, but also competes the rest of the group's plants for the workload that would leave Puerto Real.“Getafe has a hole available and also is next to an airport.But that would not cease to be a relocation.And the auxiliary companies of Cádiz would not have a hollow to compete with those of Madrid, ”explains Antonio Conde.
The viability problems of the Airbus factory in Puerto Real arise as a result of the production of the A380, and the Coronavirus pandemic has only aggravated them.The announcement of the cancellation of the Superjumbo in the first quarter of 2019 was a disappointment but not a surprise, since the cadence of production had been reduced from three A380 per month to just six per year.
But for Puerto Real, it was a hard wand.Inaugurated in 1988, the factory arose from the shortage of soil in the historic house factory in props for the manufacture of MD-11 elements, a Macdonell-Douglas trimotor, a company that was subsequently absorbed by Boeing.Puerto Real subsequently hosted all the assembly technology that was in Cádiz.
A decade later, he underwent a great extension to participate in what would be the great Airbus emblem.The A380 was designed to improve in all its qualities to the Boeing 747 from the premise that long -distance world air traffic would be channeled through large airports fed by many short radio flights.That implied the need to provide large -capacity airplanes, more efficient but need high occupation to be profitable.
However, Airbus was completely wrong, since the market was oriented towards direct long distance flights without scales, leaving both 747 and its most modern rival.The airlines opted in mass by long -range bimoretors with less capacity and more versatility, such as A350 and Boeing 787.
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The failure of the A380 is evidenced that several units have already been unscathed with just a decade of service, something unpublished in the air industry, and that some of the large companies that operate it, such as Air France or Lufthansa, have announced the withdrawal ofHis fleet taking advantage of the crisis of the coronavirus.
European scale project
The A380 was conceived as an industrial project at European scale, distributing its production through Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and France, implanting the final assembly line in Toulouse.The Puerto Real plant was in charge of assembling three pieces of the A380: the horizontal stabilizer;The HTP or helm deep, and the belly or Belly Fairing.The rest of the Spanish industrial load of the A380 was distributed among the Getafe (Madrid), Tablada (Seville) and Illescas (Toledo) factories, together with a dozen auxiliary companies.
The production of the A380 in Puerto Real started in 2003, when the first Belly Fairing was delivered.The space dedicated to the Superjumbo reached 70% of the useful area of the factory.As Airbus expectations were not met, the plant reorganized its internal distribution and diversified, reducing the weight of the A380 to just 20% of its business before its cancellation.
One of the last milestones of Puerto Real was to bring the assembly of the rudders of the A320, the most successful model of the consortium.In the stage prior to health crisis, he set up six daily pieces, after expanding the production line with one of the machines initially intended for A380.In addition, Puerto Real also takes care of the assembly of several mobile pieces for the A330, a veteran plane that is at the end of its useful life, and also participates in the A350 program, the most modern Airbus and called to replace the A330,with the assembly of side drawers.But most of the factory is unused, which penalizes its profitability for the high maintenance costs that Airbus must support for a space without productive performance.
To this situation is added the impact of the pandemic.Airbus announced last Thursday the suspension of the dividend and losses for an amount of 1,133 million euros in 2020 due to the lack of orders for the crisis of the coronavirus.Although the business figures have strong falls compared to the previous year, the red numbers of the year of the pandemic are 16% lower than those presented in 2019, which amounted to 1,362 million euros, despite the fact that this year delivered therecord of 863 aircraft and billed more than 70,000 million euros.The cause of these losses was a provision of 3,600 million euros to face judicial litigation for corruption before the authorities of the United States, France and the United Kingdom.To this was added another 1,200 million charge to assume more overruns of the A400M military plane program, which is assembled in Seville.
Employment cuts
In this context, Airbus raised last year the cut of 1,611 jobs in Spain, of which 899 correspond to the Division of Operations, and another 722 in the military division to be executed throughout 2021. In the case of portReal, attached to the civil business, would suppose the suppression of 151 jobs, 40% of the total, while in the CBC of El Puerto, belonging to the military division, 135 jobs would be cut.
Although Faury announced last Thursday that the labor adjustment in the Division of Operations was going to be reduced by one third, the cuts have a drag effect on the auxiliary industry, since Airbus itself calculates that each direct job generates three other indirectin suppliers and subcontracts.And the worst are not only the figures, but the quality of employment, since these are high qualification jobs that allow talent in the province.
At the beginning of the year, Airbus raised to the workers of Puerto Real the voluntary transfer of half a hundred assemblies to the Factors of Seville of the Military Division, a measure to which the Company Committee opposed for the impact it may have on theFuture productive capacity of the factory, which currently applies a temporary employment regulation file (ERTE) until May 31.In the other factory of the group in the province, the CBC of El Puerto, there is also an ERTE since last November 1 that will be in force until December 31, 2021, being the only plant in the military business in Spain in whichThe suspension of contracts has been contemplated.
Plant with possibilities
For Jesús Serrano, head of CCOO-Cádiz Industry, a majority union in Airbus, Puerto Real still has a future, so it appeals to "be cautious and not take for granted probe balloons they send from the direction." "We are infull restructuring of the aeronautical sector, negotiating the new agreement and we have the industrial plan and the future workload on the table, ”says Serrano.
“We also understand that Puerto Real has an unparalleled strength in the group.It is next to a dock so you can send pieces to any FAL (final assembly line) of the world.It is a functional plant that can assume production peaks from any point in the world.Other factories have to hire a Beluga plane, which has a very high cost, ”insists Serrano.
The Secretary of the UGT-Cádiz Industry Federation, Antonio Montoro, considers that it is time to promote "drastic mobilizations."“The closing decision is not yet taken.It ratifies us that we have to mobilize, ”said Montoro, who stressed that the company's management recognizes that the factory“ no longer makes sense ”, since its location close to the head of the head was due to the need to give wayto the great pieces it produced for the A380.“Of course and in the bottle.It is an industrial decision.But if the decision is not taken, we have to be the unions that we force so that it does not take it, ”he emphasizes.
For Antonio Conde, who accumulates an almost 40 -year experience in the sector, aeronautics is living "a process similar to the dismantling of the naval industry."“There are talk of European funds that will go to new projects of ecological airplanes and drones.But no matter how fast they go, their production will take to start and will not give work or this year or the next one.How is that transit survives until 2023?That is the problem, ”wonders the president of the employer of the Aeronautical Auxiliary Industry in Cádiz.
