As well as its wine and cheese, France is also famed for its traditional August month off, when much of the workforce simply shuts down and heads to the beach.

It’s a brave – or perhaps desperate – company that’s willing to challenge French workers’ assumption that they get to spend a month en vacances but now Airbus, one of the country’s most high-profile businesses, is taking a stand.

Rather than simply bid bon voyage to its staff at the start of August, the pan-European plane-maker has offered overtime to workers at its Toulouse base as it battles to get production of its new A350XWB airliner on track.