FACC-CREW as a guarantee for growth through innovation and efficiency: 10 years LEONARDO Team Award

Marking the 35th anniversary of FACC AG, the LEONARDO team award, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, was presented last week at the FACC Christmas party: Since its establishment, well over 200 flagship projects have been submitted that have made a significant contribution to the growth and success of FACC on the international market and are of enormous importance for Austria as a business location. This year's victory went to the project team that celebrated a milestone in the production of sharklets (winglets) for the A320 family in 2024.

The annual LEONARDO Award recognizes outstanding projects and team achievements that contribute significantly to the further development of FACC AG. Since 2014, the award has put the spotlight on projects that highlight the innovative strength of the FACC crew and have led to the strong growth and position of FACC AG as one of the TOP aviation companies worldwide. Once again this year, the FACC jury selected five finalists, whose projects were presented to around 1,500 employees at the FACC Christmas party in early December. The victory went to the A320 Sharklet (Winglet) project team, which was able to implement further efficiency improvements despite an already very good performance in recent years. In addition, the 2000th Shipset Sharklet was delivered to the customer Airbus this year. This successful project is representative of many other FACC innovation projects that are enormously important for Austria as a business location as a result of the efficiency gains and innovations achieved.

“With this year's winner project, we are honoring a team that has demonstrated outstanding performance and efficiency over many years and - starting from an already very high level - has improved its performance even further. It is precisely such increases in efficiency that are particularly important in an environment of enormously rising costs,” emphasizes CEO Robert Machtlinger. “This achievement is remarkable in every respect.”

2,000 Airbus aircraft equipped with Sharklets

By manufacturing sharklets (winglets) for the A320 family, FACC is making a significant contribution to increasing the range and optimizing the efficiency of modern passenger aircraft. The sharklets - upwardly curved wingtips that optimize the flow behavior of aircraft - are manufactured at FACC's headquarters in Ried im Innkreis. The parts made of high-tech composite materials consist of around 4,000 individual components and are manufactured by a team of around 100 highly specialized experts, who were presented with the LEONARDO Award at the Christmas party. The 2000th anniversary Sharklet was delivered to the customer Airbus this June.

Over 200 submissions in ten years

Since the LEONARDO was launched exactly ten years ago, well over 200 innovations have been submitted, all of which have contributed to the further expansion of FACC's success. Projects in recent years have included, for example, the development of a new and highly efficient testing method for lightweight components - active thermography. This new technology was further developed for series use in the aviation industry as part of a long-term research project. The Wing of Tomorrow research project carried out together with the customer Airbus and other partners from industry was also awarded a LEONARDO: The aim: to jointly develop the wing technologies of tomorrow and make them ready for series production.

Focus on team performance

In addition to the exceptional innovative character of a project, the LEONARDO award focuses in particular on team performance. All submissions are evaluated according to FACC's value compass and the categories of performance, output, respect and team spirit contained therein. For innovations and developments are only successful in the long term and only have an impact on the entire company if they are lived and implemented by the entire team.