Airbus opens new assembly line in southern France

France-based giant aero group Airbus inaugurated on Tuesday a new assembly line in Toulouse, south France, to improve competitiveness and bolster profitability to face fierce competition of U.S. Boeing. With the new investment "Airbus celebrates the world's newest generation two engine wide-body aircraft, the A350 XWB," the group said in a statement. The assembling unit stretching over 74,000 square-meter in the southern town of Toulouse is expected to recruit 1,500 workers and produce up to 10 aircraft a month as from 2018, it added, without giving further details on the investment's value. The aircraft with vertical wing and horizontal tail "will be transferred to the static test hangar at the Toulouse site to be prepared for static tests to start in spring 2013," the European aircraft maker said. French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, along with political figures, local officials, as well as Airbus customers, suppliers, top executives and over 1,000 employees attended the inauguration ceremony, according to the statement.