Boeing, EuroMale and solar drone. All the news for Leonardo
Boeing secures major order with airlines in Saudi Arabia for 121 787 Dreamliner jets. Work in sight for the Grottaglie di Leonardo plant. Meanwhile, Leonardo has secured the hangar at Grottaglie airport where the Euromale European drone project will be developed. But the unions say that….
The Grottaglie site, one of the most impacted by the crisis in Leonardo's Aerostructures division, is ready to restart.
Aircraft maker Boeing said last week it had secured orders for 121 787 Dreamliner jets between national carrier Saudia and new carrier Riyadh Air. The contract, at list prices, is valued at $37 billion.
Excellent news for Leonardo's Taranto plant which, from its start-up in 2006 to today, has only worked on the carbon fiber fuselage sections of the Boeing 787. Being a single-order project, the Grottaglie plant has suffered from the significant slowdown that occurred, both as a result of Covid and for problems related to the client.
But the relaunch plan for the group's Aerostructures division also envisages the overcoming of the mono-contracting order for Grottaglie with new activities (Vertical VX 4, Skydweller Aero, EuroMale). Just for this last project last week Aeroporti di Puglia and Leonardo signed a contract for the twenty-year sub-concession of the airport's Hangar Two.
But perplexities arise for the unions: "We had different information from the company". As L'Edicola del Sud reports, the unions write to Leonardo that "the acquisition of the shed would provide for the realization of the Euroromale drone project in total contrast with the information shared up to now". According to the trade unions, the company in Piazza Monte Grappa had illustrated "a different use of building 2". That is, the Skydweller, the solar-powered drone, while "a new building" would have been built for the activities related to Euromale.
All the details.
THE SAUDI ORDER FOR BOEING
Riyadh Air, a new airline owned by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, and Saudia Airlines, also owned by the government, will buy 78 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and have opted to purchase another 43. The deals are part of an effort by Saudi Arabia to become a global aviation hub, copying a business model being pursued by other Middle Eastern countries such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, comments The New York Times . Saudia currently flies more than 50 Boeing aircraft, including the 777 and 787 models.
WORK FOR LEONARDO'S GROTTAGLIE AND FOGGIA SITES
The Arab orders guarantee work and stability for the employees of the Apulian sites of Leonardo's Aerostructures division: two segments of the Dreamliner fuselage are produced in Grottaglie and the tail stabilizer in Foggia.
THE POSITION OF LEONARDO'S MANAGEMENT
"All the main programs involving Leonardo's aerostructures division are growing both for the current year and for 2024 and 2022" explained Leonardo's general manager, Lucio Valerio Cioffi,during the call on 21 February last . As described by Cioffi, the order for the Boeing 787 has restarted (two sections of the fuselage are being built in Grottaglie), albeit moderately and far from the levels of 2019 (164 fuselages in one year). But it goes from 22 couples last year to 57 at present and in 2025 it should reach 100.
HOW IS THE AEROSTRUCTURES DIVISION
So for Leonardo's manager, the group will complete the 300 million investment plan in the Aerostructures Division plants in 2023.
And the recovery also seems certified by the end of the ordinary redundancy fund in 2023 in the four plants of Leonardo's Aerostructures division, with 4,500 direct employees plus related industries.
At the beginning of the month, Leonardo also reported the results from 1 January to 31 December 2022 , recording a lower cash absorption for its loss-making aerostructures division (296 million euros against 339 million euros in 2021) and stated that it aimed at breakeven in 2025.
THE HANGER FOR THE EURODONE
Finally, returning to Grottaglie, (the most affected by the crisis of the four sites) it is expected that the mono-contracting linked to the Boeing 787 will be overcome with new activities (Vertical VX 4, Skydweller Aero, EuroMale).
Just a few days ago, on 16 March, Aeroporti di Puglia and Leonardo signed a contract for the twenty-year sub-concession of hangar two of the Ionian airport for the Eurodrone project, the European UAV Male (Medium Altitude Long Endurance) Rpas, for which "the implementation of all the processes on the wing technology is envisaged, with manufacturing in Foggia and assembly in Grottaglie".
THE CONCERNS OF THE UNIONS ABOUT THE HANGER FOR THE GROTTAGLIE DI LEONARDO SITE
Furthermore, in this company, the defense and aerospace group led by Alessandro Profumo has an equity stake as well as being a technological partner of the project since 2019 .
In addition to remotely piloted aircraft and the production of the two fuselage parts of the Boeing 787, Grottaglie should also host a laboratory for the study of advanced materials.
“The new MaTeRIA Lab (Materials Technology Research and InnovAtion Lab) has taken shape in Grottaglie for the study of advanced materials as well as the new Joint Lab between Leonardo and the Solvay group. The latter is the joint research laboratory for the development of new composite materials and new production processes considered fundamental for the future of the aerospace industry”, Il Sole 24 Ore reported last year.
Finally, for the unions, to all of this "there is added uncertainty about the timing for the investments destined for the new activities envisaged on our site (Euromale, Skydweller, Vertical Vx4, new packages from the major international players) announced several times in various locations by the company and which, even today, does not see us receiving precise and punctual information".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/boeing-euromale-e-drone-solare-tutte-le-novita-per-leonardo/ on Mon, 20 Mar 2023 14:30:00 +0000.