Today in Hamburg the Austrian airline NIKI took over an Airbus A319. This is the first airplane of the A320 family with an "enhanced cabin" that Airbus has delivered to a customer. FACC AG, a supplier for the A320 program for over 15 years now, played a definitive part in the redesign of the cabin and is responsible for the development and production of the overhead stowage compartments, ceiling panels and cove light panels made of weight-saving composite materials. The entire order volume is expected to be over $150 million, depending on the volume of incoming orders to Airbus.

"In addition to high passenger comfort and roominess, reduced weight and low operation costs are among the deciding factors of a passenger cabin," says Walter Stephan, Chairman of the Board of FACC AG. "We strive to fulfil these demands through consistent research and innovative, light, fuel-saving solutions. NIKI banks on excellent service, and as an Austrian aviation company we are especially pleased to be able to support them in their success."

FACC has finished most of the development work on the project. The enhanced cabin systems went into serial production in December 2006, and in 2007 FACC is already equipping half of the planes delivered by Airbus (around 180 planes) with the new, lighter cabin equipment. Due to high demand, the current total orders for the A320 family amount to more than 2,000 planes. Furthermore, Airbus offers the new enhanced cabins for retrofitting in existing planes of this model series, of which 2,974 planes are currently in use by airlines. This means that a high demand for cabin retrofitting and with it additional orders for FACC may be expected.

FACC is a supplier for the basic A320 model as well as the A318, A319, and A321 models. In addition to the cabin elements, FACC also produces various engine nacelle components for individual A320 models.

Less Weight, Optimized Acoustics, Higher Efficiency

The far-reaching innovations that FACC applied to the cabin technology of the A320 result in significant weight reduction and optimized acoustic properties. This advancement was achieved by improving the lay-up process in component production and decoupling acoustic connections of the cabin to the aircraft structure.

The main focus of the design of the individual interior components was on an increase of efficiency in the assembly of the cabin. A simpler and faster installation in the assembly line is achieved though newly developed, flexible fastening elements. This results in definite time savings for the airline while doing maintenance work and remodelling the cabin.