Airbus is to take control of much of the Spirit AeroSystems business in the UK, with the historic Short Brothers factory in Belfast set to be broken up between the European aircraft manufacturer and its US rival Boeing.
Spirit was taken over in a $4.7 billion deal last year by Boeing as the American aircraft maker moved to shore up its supply chain.
However, that transaction was not straightforward, as much of Spirit was also entrenched in the supply chain of Airbus.
After months of negotiations, Airbus has announced that it is to acquire a number of assets, including the wing and fuselage manufacturing facilities for the A220 aircraft — the 130-seater smallest commercial plane in the Airbus stable — in Belfast.
They also include the Spirit manufacturing facilities for wing components for the A320 and A350 aircraft at Prestwick in Scotland. Other plants in the US, France and Morocco are included in the deal.
For the Belfast plant, the deal leaves the future uncertain for many of the 3,500 people employed in the facilities. Trade union officials in the city warned that as many 2,000 workers remain unsure of whether they have long-term jobs.
As part of the Belfast deal, Airbus takes control of the 1,000 people working on the A220 wings. This effectively makes the UK the global centre of excellence for Airbus, adding it to its wingmaking plant at Broughton in north Wales for all its other aircraft types, and its design and engineering facilities at Filton, near Bristol.
Sir Keir Starmer on a visit to the Spirit AeroSystems wing production facility in Belfast in 2023.
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It is understood that Airbus would rather the 500 people working on the A220 fuselage in Belfast were employed by a supplier, and it is seeking a third-party company to take control of that function.
In addition, it is possible that the other 2,000 people at the Belfast factories who work on non-Airbus business, including maintenance and repair work and components for the likes of Rolls-Royce, the engine maker, and Bombardier, the business jet manufacturer, will remain with Boeing until a buyer is found.
At Prestwick, near Glasgow, Airbus is taking control of the 1,150 workers in its supply chain for components on the A320 and A350 aircraft programmes. But, as with the fuselage section facility in Belfast, Airbus hopes that Prestwick will be directly on its book only on a temporary basis until another second-tier aerospace manufacturer can be found to take it on.
On the Spirit deal, Airbus said it is to receive $439 million compensation but will provide $200 million of credit lines to invest in the businesses.
The company added: “Airbus aims to ensure stability of supply for its commercial aircraft programmes through a more sustainable way forward, both operationally and financially, for key Airbus work packages.”
An official said: “The focus for Airbus is on securing Airbus-related activities, which are at a critical point in production ramp-up.”
The Belfast factory became a key part of the Airbus story when the planemaker bought and rescued Bombardier’s struggling C-Series aeroplane programme and renamed the aircraft-type the A220.
Airbus shares rose €4.80, or 3.4 per cent, to €145.40.
The Short Brothers’ Belfast factory in its heyday
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Brothers in arms
America had the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur. But Britain’s Short brothers can also lay claim to having played a pioneering role at the dawn of the aviation era.
Horace Short was regarded by one contemporary as the greatest engineer of his generation. Oswald Short was seen as the great innovator in the development of flying boats or seaplanes.
The lives of the Short brothers — a third, Eustace, originally got them into the flying game with a gas-powered balloon racing venture based in Battersea, south London — were changed with the arrival in Europe of the Wright brothers in 1908.
Within a year, having gained the British rights to the design of the Wrights’ aircraft, the Shorts went into aircraft production on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.
The Short Brothers statue at Leysdown on Sea on the Isle of Sheppey
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Their early aircraft saw service in the First World War. Between the wars, having moved to Rochester, the Shorts became world leaders in seaplanes. As the Second World War loomed, the air ministry procured a production facility in Belfast, which Shorts took on and which became their main base for production of bombers after Rochester was targeted by the Luftwaffe.
Towards the end of the war Shorts was nationalised and after the war, concentrating all its operations in Belfast, it became a specialist in freight.
It remained a state-owned company until the 1980s when, during the development of a 44-seater regional jet, the government sold the business to Bombardier, the Canadian aircraft manufacturer.
Bombardier owned the business up until 2019 when, facing a financial crisis, it sold Shorts to Spirit AeroSystems, which had been a spinout from Boeing. The US giant then bought back Spirit AeroSystems last year.