FACC

If you’ve ever photographed an A320neo at the fence, there’s a good chance you’ve had a piece of Upper Austria in the frame. The upswept wingtips of the A320 family, the Sharklets, are built in large part in Ried im Innkreis – by FACC. The company is not an aircraft manufacturer in the classic sense, but one of the most important specialists for lightweight parts made of composite materials. Flaps, spoilers, tail parts, engine nacelle components, overhead bins and entire cabins are all part of the lineup. And the story behind it starts, of all places, with a ski maker.

From skis to aircraft

The roots of FACC lie in the Innviertel, at the ski maker Fischer. Starting in 1981, its research department explored where else the lightweight, stiff composite materials found in skis could be used. The answer was aviation. First orders followed, a major order from McDonnell Douglas came in 1987, and the first order from Airbus in 1989.

In the same year, the aviation business was spun off as Fischer Advanced Composite Components – hence the abbreviation FACC. In 1991 Österreichische Salinen AG came on board with half of the shares. The next big turning point followed in 2009: The Chinese aircraft manufacturer Xi’an Aircraft Industrial Corporation from the state-owned AVIC group took over the majority of more than 90 percent. Xi’an is familiar to spotters, among other things, as the maker of the MA60 turboprop.

In 2014 FACC went public on the Vienna Stock Exchange. Since then part of the shares has been held by institutional investors and in free float, while AVIC remains the core shareholder with about 55 percent (as of 2023). Day-to-day operations are still run from Upper Austria, though.

What composites mean in an aircraft

Composite materials – often simply called “composites” or carbon fiber in everyday spotter talk – consist of carbon or glass fibers embedded in a resin. The result is lighter than aluminum, yet very stiff and corrosion resistant. Every kilogram saved reduces fuel consumption over an aircraft’s entire lifetime, and that is exactly why the share of these materials has been rising for decades.

On older types it was mainly fairings and control surfaces; on modern widebody jets like the Airbus A350 and the Boeing 787, large parts of the primary structure are made of composites. FACC names both programs as customers. An analyst report from 2018 put the value of a complete set of FACC parts for an A350 at around €1.5 million – which shows how much composite know-how goes into a single widebody jet today.

FACC covers the whole chain here: development, testing, series production and maintenance. For design, the company is approved as a design organization (Part 21/J), for production as a production organization (Part 21/G) and for maintenance as a Part-145 organization.

The business divisions at a glance

Today FACC divides its offering into five divisions. The three classic pillars – structures, engines and cabins – make up the bulk; according to an analysis, in 2018 about 47 percent of revenue came from Aerostructures, 33 percent from Cabin Interiors and 20 percent from Engines & Nacelles.

Sharklets: the most visible FACC product

For spotters, one component is especially exciting: the Sharklets of the A320 family. The upward-curved wingtips, about 2.4 meters tall, reduce the vortices at the wing end and thus fuel consumption. Their shape is modeled on the upturned wingtip feathers of large birds such as the condor, and the name alludes to a shark’s fin.

The FACC Sharklets are built at the headquarters in Ried im Innkreis. According to the company, each unit consists of about 4,000 individual parts, and around 100 skilled workers are involved in production. From Ried the parts go straight to the Airbus final assembly lines. In June 2024 FACC celebrated the 2,000th Sharklet; the anniversary aircraft went to an airline in the Arab world.

Important for your notes: Airbus works with several suppliers for many components, and Korean Air Aerospace is also named as a Sharklet manufacturer. From the outside, you can’t tell which plant the wingtips of a particular aircraft came from. What you can tell for sure is whether a jet has Sharklets. On the A320neo and the A321neo they are standard; on older ceo aircraft it depends on the build year and retrofit. The details are explained in the article A320neo or ceo?, and the differences between the family members are in Telling the A318, A319, A320 and A321 apart with confidence.

Structural components for wing, tail and fuselage

Besides the Sharklets, FACC makes a long list of structural components. These include landing flaps, spoilers and ailerons on the trailing edge of the wing, vertical and horizontal stabilizers with their control surfaces, the large wing-to-body fairings and the slim flap track fairings that hang under the wing like “canoes.” Radomes, the nose caps under which the weather radar sits, are also part of the portfolio.

Which of these parts exactly come from FACC on which aircraft type is rarely disclosed in detail by manufacturers and suppliers. Several programs are documented, though. For the E-Jet E2 family from Embraer, FACC develops and builds high-tech components and has been recognized by Embraer several times as a supplier for it, including in 2020/21 and in the years 2024 to 2026. Through its Canadian subsidiary, FACC supplies structural parts for the Airbus A220 and the Bombardier Global 8000.

A look into the future is the Airbus research project Wing of Tomorrow, in which new construction methods and manufacturing processes are tested for the wings of coming generations of airliners. FACC developed a key component for it and received the Airbus innovation award in 2019.

Engines and nacelles

The Engines & Nacelles division supplies components and fairings for engines and nacelles of airliners and business jets. Components like these are meant not only to be light, but also to improve aerodynamics and reduce noise. Customers include the big engine manufacturers, among them Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney and Safran.

One concrete example is the Rolls-Royce business jet engine Pearl 10X, for which FACC develops composite components. As early as 2020 the company received a best practice award from Rolls-Royce. If you’re interested in the technology behind the nacelles, the article Identifying engines covers the most important external features of the common engine families.

Cabins for airliners and business jets

The second big pillar is the cabin. FACC builds complete interiors: overhead bins above the seats, ceiling and sidewall panels, linings and lavatories. According to the company, the goal is a modular design that saves weight, allows more seats and extends the service life of the components. Bio-based materials and the recycling of thermoplastics are also research topics.

FACC is especially strong in cabins for business aircraft. For the Bombardier Challenger 3500 and the Global 8000, the Canadian subsidiary in particular supplies cabin components. That means FACC also shows up on the GA aprons of major airports – how to tell the various business jets apart is explained in Telling Gulfstream, Global, Falcon, Citation and Challenger apart.

In the business jet segment, Gulfstream and Dassault are also customers alongside Bombardier. The systems supplier Collins Aerospace is on the customer list too. A good comparison is Diehl Aviation, a German cabin specialist with a similar portfolio.

Drones and eVTOL

Under the name Advanced Air Mobility, FACC bundles its work on new aircraft. For electric vertical takeoff aircraft (eVTOL), the company supplies wing and fuselage parts made of composites and, for fixed-wing concepts, horizontal stabilizers as well. In addition there are structural components for the cabin and the bonding of composite components.

FACC goes a step further with cargo drones: Here the company offers development and manufacturing from the first concept to series production. Since 2018 there has been a strategic partnership with the Chinese drone maker EHang on autonomous flight, and in 2020 FACC received the innovation award of the state of Upper Austria for an urban air mobility project. If you fly drones yourself, you’ll find the rules for Austria in the article Flying a drone in Austria.

Customers and programs

FACC describes itself as a technology partner to all major aircraft and engine manufacturers. Named customers include Airbus, Boeing, Airbus Helicopters, Bombardier, COMAC, Dassault, Embraer, Gulfstream, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce, Safran and Collins Aerospace.

By the way, you can recognize the E190-E2 and E195-E2 by the new engines and the slim, elongated wings – the differences from the first E-Jet generation are explained in Telling the Embraer E170, E175, E190, E195 and E2 generation apart. The surest way to tell the A350 from the 787 is by the cockpit windows and wingtips, see A350 or Boeing 787?.

Sites: from the Innviertel to the world

The heart of FACC beats in the Innviertel in Upper Austria. The main plant (Plant 1) is in Ried im Innkreis, two more plants are in neighboring St. Martin im Innkreis, and one is in Reichersberg. A technology center also opened in St. Martin in 2013. In March 2026 FACC announced a further expansion there, which by 2028 is to include about 20,000 square meters of new construction and around 300 highly automated jobs.

The largest production site outside Austria is Jakovlje in Croatia, north of Zagreb. An expansion opened there in September 2026, with around €36 million invested; the production area has tripled, and the workforce has grown from 160 to more than 500 people according to the company. The plant has a fully automated paint shop and is regarded as a center of excellence for high-end cabin interiors.

FACC has had a presence in Canada since 2006, originally to support Bombardier directly on site. In 2026 the subsidiary celebrated its 20th anniversary; according to the company it employs more than 80 people and has been recognized by Transport Canada since 2022 as a maintenance organization for business jet cabin components. In addition there are sales, engineering and service offices close to customers, for example in Toulouse, Hamburg, Filton, Seattle, Wichita, Montreal, São Paulo, Abu Dhabi, India, Malaysia and China.

Where you see aircraft with FACC components

Because FACC is involved in so many programs, you’ll find its components practically everywhere. The Sharklets of the A320 family are an everyday subject at every European airport. In Austria, Vienna Airport with its observation deck and the spotters’ hill offers the widest selection, including the A320 fleet of Austrian Airlines. Everything else is in the guide Plane spotting in Vienna-Schwechat.

Closer to Ried are Linz Airport and Salzburg Airport with its observation deck. What the law says about spotting in Austria is summarized in Plane spotting in Austria.

If you want to see aircraft fresh from final assembly, head to Airbus: A320-family jets are built in Hamburg-Finkenwerder – tips in the article Spotting at Airbus Finkenwerder, and you can watch scheduled traffic from the observation deck in Hamburg. In Toulouse, A350s and other Airbus types fly their test flights at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport, and right next to it is the Aeroscopia museum.

FACC among competitors and in Austrian aviation

In the market for composite structures and cabins, FACC competes with large international suppliers, including Spirit AeroSystems and Premium Aerotec in structures and Safran, Collins Aerospace and Diehl in cabins. FACC’s strength lies in its specialization in composite materials and in offering development, production and maintenance from a single source.

Within Austria, FACC is one of the largest employers in the aviation industry. Alongside the aircraft manufacturer Diamond Aircraft from Wiener Neustadt, the company shapes the picture of the Austrian aviation industry. If you’re interested in the history of aviation in the country, the Aviaticum aviation museum and Hangar-7 in Salzburg are worthwhile destinations.

A look at the finances shows where things are headed: For 2025 FACC reported record revenue of €984.4 million and an operating result of €42.3 million. By 2030 the company says it intends to invest around €350 million in technology, automation and new capacity. The basis is the rising production rates at Airbus, Boeing and others, along with new programs. In October 2026 FACC concluded a new syndicated loan of €190 million for this purpose.

Conclusion

FACC is proof that the aviation industry doesn’t happen only in Toulouse, Hamburg or Seattle. A research group at the ski maker Fischer has become a supplier whose components are in the wings, tails, nacelles and cabins of thousands of aircraft – from the A320neo through the Embraer E2 to the business jet.

For spotters, FACC is mainly background knowledge with one visible flagship: the Sharklets. The next time you photograph an A320 with upswept wingtips, you’ll know the chances are good that a piece of the Innviertel is in the frame.