Airbus has been granted permission to pave over 18 hectares of land for expansion of its Toulouse aircraft manufacturing site

Aircraft manufacturer Airbus’s main site, located next to Toulouse-Blagnac Airport in southern France, already covers 700 hectaes of land. In October 2025 Airbus announced that an additional 18 hectares of land will be developed to increase production of its A320 and A 321 aircraft. New storage hangars, fitting and painting halls and a new delivery centre will be constructed. This expansion would have been impossible without an exemption from the ‘net zero land take‘ provision of the Climate and Resilience Law, whereby metropolitan regions must half conversion of natural, agricultural and forest land for industrial infrastructure and housing between 2021 and 2031 in comparison to the previous decade. The Airbus expansion project benefits from permission for the state to grant exemptions for major projects designated as of significant public interest. In 2024 Airbus was granted permission to develop 54 hectares of natural, agricultural and forest areas by 2031.

There was some criticism of the government support and preferential treatment for the Airbus plant expansion. President of Friends of the Earth Midi-Pyrenees, Jean Olivier, disagreed with the claim that the project served the public interest, saying that, in addition to paving over more land, manufacturing of more planes was heading in the wrong direction and warred of increased nuisance for local residents. He also pointed out cessation of activities at a number of industrial sites in the region, suggesting the alternative of reusing these brownfield sites rather than developing greenfield sites. Haute-Garonne Green Party MP Christine Arrighi said reindustrialisation must not disregard environmental concerns and called for a halt to weakening environmental laws in the name of benefitting the economy and creating employment. At the time of the announcement, expansion works had already started at the Colomiers, Cornebarrieu and Lagardère areas of the Airbus Toulouse site. Airbus is also expanding its aircraft manufacturing sites in Germany, the USA and China.