Airbus Should Manage NGSA Out Of Hamburg, German Chancellor Says

BERLIN—German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is urging Airbus to manage the development of its next-generation, single-aisle airliner out of Hamburg.

Airbus currently runs its highly successful A320 program from its Finkenwerder site in the city. Merz is keen to see that tradition continue.

Speaking June 10 as he formally opened the ILA Berlin Air Show, Merz called on the airframer to continue running narrowbody programs from the city, to allow the “European success story of Airbus to continue.”

His proposal is a component of Germany’s new aviation strategy, its first in 12 years. It calls for increased investments in the country’s aviation research program with a focus on digitalization and decarbonization, as well as electric- and hydrogen-powered aviation.

He said Germany and Europe had demonstrated their strength as “globally leading centers for civil aircraft manufacturing.”

“Aviation is an innovation industry ... it is also one of the great growth industries of our age,” Merz told the ILA crowds. “No other industry in Germany or Europe offers comparable long-term growth prospects.”

Airbus is currently studying architectures for a next-generation, single-aisle airliner, which it provisionally hopes to launch in 2030.

In 2025, the A320 family became the most successful commercial aircraft program as measured in deliveries, as they accelerated past the record set by the Boeing 737 family. Several thousand of those A320s have emerged from the Finkenwerder hangars.

Merz’s words were foreshadowed on the eve of ILA by Katherina Reiche, federal minister for economic affairs and energy, who said Germany would bring “system expertise and a share of technology” to the future single-aisle program.