Business is Business

Today we toured Airbus, and the grounds were huge. There were warehouses upon warehouses. When we first got to Airbus for our tour, they gave us a little box and headphones so that we could listen to the tour guide, who has a microphone. While waiting for the tour to start, many of us went into the convenience store to buy snacks because dinner was going to be late. Our tour guide told us that we could not even try to touch our phones while we were on tour because pictures were prohibited. He also explained that we were not allowed to touch anything.

We loaded onto a bus, and they brought us to the Welcome building and showed us the welcome video. Our tour guide Victor gave us lots of interesting information about the company. Airbus, established in 1970, is actually the third largest airplane manufacturer. The headquarters is in Toulouse, France. Since Airbus is a trans international company, France, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Germany all make specific parts of the plane. France manufactures the electronics and the cockpit. The UK manufactures the wing box. Spain manufactures the tail. Germany manufactures the cabin and assembles the planes using robots. The Hamburg campus also “stuffs” the planes, which is when the company puts in the seats, the carpet, and things like that into the plane.

We travelled the grounds by bus and walked around in the buildings. I knew before that planes are huge, but the actual sizes of these planes were really put into perspective when we were standing next to them. Victor explained, which parts came from which countries and pointed out where the black boxes (which are not really black, but neon pink) would go, one in the back and one in the front. The back black box stores data and the front black box records the pilot so that he can communicate with control towers and other pilots. Then we went to see where the planes’ cabins were being built. We got to see the cabin in parts and one cabin that was fully assembled. He also explained to us why seats in cabins had no legroom. He said for every two inches taken from the space between rows they could add ten more seats.

Our tour guide explained that Airbus’s biggest competition is Boeing, but he happily informed us that they have sold more aircrafts than Boeing for the last seven years. And as Victor said several times, “Everything is for the money.”