Airbus appoints new program heads for A380, A320 lines

Airbus Industrie announced September 4 that Mario Heinen has been appointed senior vice president and head of the A380 program. Heinen previously led the Single Aisle Program, and previously headed the Airbus delivery centers in Toulouse, France, and Hamburg, Germany. He joined Airbus in 1999 coming from Lufthansa Technik, where he served as general manager of aircraft maintenance.

Airbus also announced that Alain Flourens was named the new head of the Single Aisle Program. Flourens is currently executive vice president and head of Airbus’ Centers of Excellence (COEs). The heads of the COEs will, from now on, directly report to executive vice president of operations Karl-Heinz Hartmann. This flattens the management structure by removing one reporting level. 

Mario Heinen and Alain Flourens will report to Tom Williams (54), who is extending his role as executive vice president of programs to all Airbus aircraft families. He reports directly to Airbus CEO Christian Streiff.

“In four years as head of the Airbus Single Aisle Program, Mario Heinen demonstrated great leadership and outstanding management capabilities in the extremely successful ramp-up of this programme. Under his watch, the A320 family smoothly obtained record series production results. He previously achieved great customer satisfaction when he managed the Airbus delivery centers. Mario has strong support from Tom Williams, who has proved to be a courageous and decisive leader,” Streiff said.

“I am grateful for Alain Flourens’ achievements as head of the COEs. He successfully implemented the first step of rationalising the organisational structure of manufacturing units. He will now lead Airbus’ largest and most successful program.”

Charles Champion hands over the A380 program to Heinen as the A380 moves from development and certification to the ramp-up of the series production. He has been appointed special advisor to the Streiff.

“I would like to thank Charles Champion on behalf of all employees at Airbus for his exceptional contribution to bring the A380 up to the final stages of certification. I’m pleased that he will continue to share his vast experience with us at Airbus in his new advisory role, ” Streiff said.

Airbus is an EADS joint company with BAE Systems.