Former Airbus Employees Share Their Stories in New Book

Remember the women and men who made the history ofAirbus. This is the objective of Ariana, the association of Airbus retirees. The association is celebrating its 65th anniversary this year.

To mark this anniversary, Nadine Couëdel and Catherine Rougier decided to bring together in a book of around a hundred pages testimonies from former employees of the aviation company in the Saint-Nazaire region (Loire-Atlantique). “We know how to talk about planes which are manufactured here, techniques, but much less the humans who make them,” notes Nadine Couëdel, at the origin of the project.

“Airbus, we stayed there and we evolved there”

With Catherine Rougier, they have already met fifteen people.

At first, when we start talking, they are a little shy and then we can’t stop them. We feel that they are happy to talk about their story.

Among the testimonies, Léone, 94 years old, administrative agent in the personnel office. She has started his career at 44. “It was the chance of my life,” she confides. At the time, we “returned to aviation, it was a source of pride,” remarks Nadine Couëdel.

Disappeared professions

The two women tell the story of these employees, most of whom have spent their entire careers here. “Airbus, we stayed there and we evolved there,” explains Serge Fertré, the president of Ariana. We discover professions that have disappeared today: switchboard operator, mechanographer, modeler and also journeymen.

With this book, we want to promote manual professions.

Through their stories, we discover the evolution of planes of course. The Falcon 500, the Caravelle or even the Concorde…. Of course, there were darker times with unemployment. “But that’s not what people remember. They all tell us about friendly moments, good relations with management, good atmosphere…”

1,000 copies

To finalize the book, which is scheduled for release in 2024, the two elders are launching a call for witnesses. “We are looking for people who have worked in production at Airbus and its subcontractors to tell us their story, to say thank you to all those who have written the history of the sector. »

She is also looking for photos, teams and this big family that aeronautics represented.

The book will be published in 1,000 copies. “We’re going to talk about an era that we haven’t read about anywhere. »

Former Airbus employees who wish to testify or lend photos can contact Nadine Couëdel on 06 87 85 96 72.

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