Airbus

Airbus SAS is an aircraft manufacturing subsidiary of EADS, a European aerospace company. Based in Blagnac, France, near Toulouse, and with significant activity across Europe, the company produces around half of the world's jet airliners. Airbus began as a consortium of aerospace manufacturers, Airbus Industrie. Consolidation of European defence and aerospace companies in 1999 and 2000 allowed the establishment of a simplified joint-stock company in 2001, owned by EADS (80%) and BAE Systems (20%). After a protracted sales process BAE sold its shareholding to EADS on 13 October 2006. Airbus employs around 52,000 people at sixteen sites in four European Union countries: Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Spain. Final assembly production is at Toulouse (France), Hamburg (Germany), Seville (Spain) and, since 2009, Tianjin (People's Republic of China).[6] Airbus has subsidiaries in the United States, Japan, China and India. The company is known for producing and marketing the first commercially viable fly-by-wire airliner, the Airbus A320,[7][8] and the world's largest airliner, the A380.