Airbus and Aerolia celebrate 500th ship-set from Irkut Corporation at MAKS

Airbus and Aerolia earlier today at the MAKS air show in Moscow celebrated the delivery of the 500th ship-set of the nose landing gear bay for the Airbus A320 family of aircraft. Find out more details below.

Airbus and Aerolia celebrate the delivery of the 500th ship-set of the nose landing gear bay for the A320 Family. The event took place at the International Aviation and Space Salon MAKS-2013 with the participation of Christopher Buckley, Executive Vice-president Sales Europe, Asia, Africa and the Pacific, Oleg Demchenko, President of Irkut Corporation and Raphael Duflos, AEROLIA Chief Procurement Officer.

Airbus started its partnership with Irkut Corporation in 2004 by signing an agreement for components supply as part of the strategic industrial partnership for the A320 programme. Irkut received major work packages which included the supply of keel beam, flap track and the nose landing gear bay for the A320 Family. The first ship-set of the nose-landing gear bay was delivered first to Airbus in 2007 then to Aerolia from 2009 when the company took over the production for Airbus of the nose landing gear bay. Ever since Irkut has been gradually increasing the production rates of this very complex component and is currently supplying 12 ship-sets per month.

“For over 20 years of cooperation with the Russian industry Airbus has developed a unique cooperation programme, which includes all stages of aircraft development processes: from R&T and design to materials supply and component manufacturing”, said Christopher Buckley, Executive Vice-president Sales. “Now every third A320 Family aircraft has components produced in Russia. We are committed to develop a trustworthy and long-term partnership with Irkut”.

“Producing A320 Family components for Airbus, the leading aircraft manufacturer, guided us towards playing a key role in international industrial cooperation. During our long term partnership, Irkut Corporation demonstrated to produce to a high level of quality components, fully in line with international standards,” said Oleg Demchenko, President of Irkut Corporation.

“Since 2007 Irkut delivered on time and quality the nose landing gear bay for the Airbus Single Aisle Programme. As a strategic partner, Aerolia wanted to further strengthen the business with Irkut by increasing the required quantity of the nose landing gear bays and involving Irkut in new work-packages. Today we are celebrating this major event of 500 ship-sets produced in six years. In the next three years, Irkut will deliver the same quantity of ship-sets, this is a clear evidence of our growing partnership”, highlighted Raphael Duflos, AEROLIA Chief Procurement Officer.