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Comment by shiroiushi | Hacker News Reader

I wonder what Airbus is doing to increase their production capacity. They're basically leaving a lot of money on the table by not being able to fill orders faster. If they could somehow double their capacity overnight, they'd still immediately sell all those planes. Of course, building production capacity for complex aircraft isn't trivial at all, but I never read about this in the news media, only about Boeing's problems and the problems their customers are experiencing because they're Boeing customers.

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> I wonder what Airbus is doing to increase their production capacity

Probably scrambling and cutting corners. You know, using dish soap as lubricant, hotel keycards instead of proper tools, leaving out bolts, typical industry stuff ;)

Spirit Aerosystems is an Airbus contractor too.

It doesn't matter who your supplier is, if you fastidiously check their work.

At that point it takes such a team that you might as well bring production in house. There's inherent trust in your supplier when you outsource.

Or don't squeeze everything impossible out of them. There is efficiency and then there demands that means corners will get cut or not cut when metal working is really needed.

But also the only core part of the fuselage they make are the wings of the A220 family.

They're basically leaving a lot of money on the table by not being able to fill orders faster.

Yes, and in times past Boeing was leaving a lot of money on the table by doing things in-house, employing a unionized workforce and applying more stringent quality control. Not everything is an opportunity for expansion, and aircraft manufacturing is famously capital-intensive and slow to build up.

Airbus recently added another A321 assembly line -- by repurposing its idle A380 construction hangar. There's a cautionary tale for you, if you're aware of history.

They're European, I assume they're going to eat some cheese and take a nap and worry about it later.

You say that like it’s a bad thing!

Those are the French. Airbus is manufacturing in Germany and Spain as well.

The Spanish are not impartial to a good nap..

And ironically, the last time I read about it, they were having production delays on the German production line..

>The Spanish are not impartial to a good nap..

They are having Tapas though, not just cheese.

>And ironically, the last time I read about it, they were having production delays on the German production line..

To be honest, that can be caused by literally anything. Even chemical contamination from cheese in the paints.

> They are having Tapas though, not just cheese.

Fair point!

> Even chemical contamination from cheese in the paints.

Ah, possibly from imported, French paints. The cheeses I encountered in Germany were unfit for use as biological weapons or contamination agents.

>Ah, possibly from imported, French paints. The cheeses I encountered in Germany were unfit for use as biological weapons or contamination agents.

Yes, I was blaming the cheesy French for the delays.

> I wonder what Airbus is doing to increase their production capacity.

Possibly not too much.

The airline industry is very cyclical, and you don't want to be caught with over-capacity at the wrong moment, after having invested billions to get there. That's a fast-track to bankruptcy.

For Airbus, by the time the investments for a capacity increase will take effect, the industry will possibly be in a downturn again due to the next world crisis rearing its ugly head. So they will possibly invest, but with a view on the long-term.

When the pandemic hit airplane manufacturers, suppliers and airlines feared a future of limited air travel, leading to them reducing capacity. Ironically Airbus, being a European country operating mostly in Germany and France can't fire people as easily as Boeing can. This, at the time, must have been quite a pain point for them, but ultimately gave them a great edge over Boeing, which has a much easier time reducing capacity.

After the pandemic, there was a massive jump in demand for airplanes. Leaving Airbus in a mich better position and now they are hiring massively in order to fill demand.

Increasing capacity is very hard though and both Airbus and all their suppliers have to do it, for it to lead to a meaningful increase in productivity. Again, ironically, this is a massive benefit for Boeing as Airbus has a very full order book, buying planes from Boeing becomes much more attractive, because the alternative is no airplanes.

Airline timelines deal in decades. Building capacity is like steering a cruise ship: very, very slow.

Cruise ships are very steerable. At least compared to cargo vessels. Being able to steer is key part of operating model. You want to get in and out of ports every day. With minimal support from tugboats. Unlike ocean going cargo vessels, which can afford those every a few weeks.

Maybe they're not doubling their production capacity overnight because they don't want to go downhill overnight like Boeing.

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