A350 Line Opens As 777X Studies Progress
Some 1,000 representatives from customers, suppliers, partners and government join Airbus employees in celebrating the inauguration of the A350 assembly line in Toulouse. (Photo: Airbus)
Some 1,000 representatives from customers, suppliers, partners and government join Airbus employees in celebrating the inauguration of the A350 assembly line in Toulouse. (Photo: Airbus)

Airbus’s inauguration ceremony for the A350 final assembly line in Toulouse last Tuesday marked a key milestone in the company’s 40-year history of widebody production and the latest step in its pursuit of a market segment dominated by Boeing for the past decade and a half. More than 1,000 representatives from customers, suppliers, partners, along with elected officials and other invitees bore witness to the 800,000-sq-ft factory next to Toulouse-Blagnac Airport in southwestern France, where Airbus houses the program’s first static test airframe.