Index / Supply Chains / Plane

An Airbus A321neo, from 9 branches across Europe to Sharjah

Aluminium from France, titanium from Kazakhstan, carbon fibre from the US, wings from Wales, fuselage sections from France and Germany, a tailplane from Spain, a tail fin floated down the Elbe, engines from near Paris and landing gear from the Pyrenees. 9 branches meet in Hamburg, and 1 jet flies to the Gulf.

Scroll to follow it. Figures are from public records, dated October 2026. An asterisk (*) marks a claim that still needs a source; a dagger (†) marks a calculated figure. Download as PDF

Branches in0 of 9

Countries1

ValueNot priced

Countries the plane draws on1 of 7

Active branch

Summary

The whole chain

9 branches, 7 countries, 1 jet

Price: List price $129.5 million (2018); new A321neo jets are valued at about $64 million
Engines: 2 LEAP-1A at about $14.5 million each at list price, about $29 million^†
Countries: 7: France, the UK, Germany, Spain, the US, Kazakhstan and the UAE
Final assembly: About 3 weeks in Hamburg

Legs

How each piece reaches the next place

Every leg of the chain. Distances are straight lines between the points on the globe.

Leg	From	To	What	How	Packed	Distance or time	Cost
1	Issoire	Broughton and Nordenham	Aluminium plate	Road^*	Plates and bars	About 1,000 km to Hamburg region^†	Not published
2	Titanium mills	Engine and gear plants	Titanium	Road and sea^*	Bar and forgings	Varies	Not published
3	Carbon fibre plants	Stade	Prepreg	Refrigerated freight^*	Cold rolls	Not published	Not published
4	Broughton	Hamburg	Wings	BelugaXL	A pair of wings	About 850 km^†	Not published
5	Saint-Nazaire	Hamburg	Fuselage sections	Beluga^*	Equipped sections	About 1,100 km^†	Not published
6	Getafe	Hamburg	Tailplane	Beluga^*	1 tailplane	About 1,800 km^†	Not published
7	Stade	Hamburg	Tail fin	Pontoon on the Elbe	1 fin	About 25 km^†	Not published
8	Villaroche	Hamburg	2 engines	Road	Engine stands	About 740 km^†	$14.5 million each, list
9	Bidos and Gloucester	Hamburg	Landing gear	Road^*	Gear sets	About 830 to 1,400 km^†	Not published
10	Hamburg	Sharjah	The finished jet	Delivery flight	Flown by its own crew	About 4,900 km^†	About $64 million paid

Chokepoints

Who controls each step

Step	Who	If it stops
Wings	Broughton	The only source of A320 family wings
Transport	6 BelugaXLs	Wings and sections move between countries on 6 aircraft
Engines	CFM, Villaroche	Every LEAP-1A so far has had its final assembly there; about 60 airframes waited for engines in 2026
Tail fin	Stade	Builds the fin for every A320 family jet
Titanium	A few producers	Russia still supplies about 20%

Paperwork

The rules along the way

Rule	Set by	Where	What it does
Type certificate	EASA	The design	Approves the A321neo design; every jet built must match it
Export certificate of airworthiness	Country of manufacture	Before the flight out	Says the jet matches its approved design when it leaves
Bill of sale	Airbus and the buyer	At handover	Transfers ownership
Registration	UAE GCAA	Before entry into service	Registers the jet in the UAE, with an A6- mark
International Registry	Cape Town Convention	Online	Records ownership and any lender’s interest in the airframe and engines
Overflight permits	Each country on the route	Delivery flight	Clears the route, which depends on airspace open in 2026

Risk

What can go wrong, and where

Where	Risk	What happens
Engines	Supply	Finished airframes wait as gliders until engines arrive
Titanium	Sanctions	About 20% still comes from Russia
Beluga	Capacity	6 aircraft carry the big parts between 4 countries
Gulf	Airspace	Closures in 2026 can lengthen the delivery flight

Gaps

What the public record does not show

Which titanium, aluminium and carbon fibre plants supply this specific jet. The branches show the main suppliers, not confirmed links.
The price Air Arabia paid. $64 million is a market value for a new A321neo.
Which Safran plant built this jet’s landing gear, and how the tailplane and gear travel to Hamburg.
The route flown to Sharjah.

Sources

Where the figures come from