The aircraft manufacturer Airbus will make more parts for its machines in Poland

Since 1997 PZL Świdnik, the Polish aircraft manufacturer, has provided cabin-door opening mechanisms for the A320 family of narrow-fuselage Airbus aircraft, and since mid-1999 also passenger cabin and cargo hold doors for the A320/A321 Airbus and for the long-range A340s. The Polish factory also makes fire protection materials for cargo hold doors and landing gear parts for the A320. At present, with EADS CASA acting as main contracting party, Airbus will manufacture, at the EADS PZL factory, lower cockpit structures for narrow-fuselage aircraft. EADS CASA will assist EADS PZL in recruiting qualified Polish subcontractors and providing personnel training. The EADS PZL plant will purchase materials, manufacture metal plate elements, commission machining in Poland and assemble complete sections. The first delivery to the Airbus factory in St. Nazaire has been slated for September. Thanks to this, 100 jobs will be created at EADS PZL and about 300 jobs for firms cooperating with the plant. Airbus is active in Poland not only in the aircraft industry. Last April, the transport firm Socatra, a parts transportation service partner of the aircraft producer, signed on behalf of Airbus a contract worth 8 million euros on the construction of a waterborne cargo handling station with the Stocznia Remontowa repair shipyard in Gdańsk.