It said the new hires would support its commercial aircraft ramp-up, and meet challenges in defence, space and helicopters, adding that around 7,000 of these jobs will be newly created posts. Over 9,000 of the new posts will be in Europe, and the rest throughout the firm's global network.

Airbus said that in 2022 it had already hired the same number of people and that it currently employs more than 130,000 people worldwide.

(Reporting by GV De Clercq, editing by Dominique Vidalon)