{"id":229704,"date":"2025-07-01T16:07:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T16:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/229704\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T16:07:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T16:07:14","slug":"boeing-set-to-take-over-spirit-in-northern-ireland-as-buyer-talks-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/229704\/","title":{"rendered":"Boeing set to take over Spirit in Northern Ireland as buyer talks fail"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/p>\n

Boeing is set to take control of Spirit AeroSystems\u2019 plant in Belfast, setting up an awkward cohabitation with rival Airbus after efforts to find a buyer for Northern Ireland\u2019s biggest aerospace manufacturer failed.<\/p>\n

Unions and industry figures had pinned their hopes on Bombardier, the plant\u2019s former owner, but talks with the Canadian planemaker were not progressing, according to several people familiar with the situation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unless talks with Bombardier are resurrected or another buyer emerges, Boeing will be forced to share the plant with rival Airbus. The European planemaker said in April <\/a>it would acquire the wing production for the A220 jet at the site, and would add the mid-fuselage work for the programme if no other buyer was found.<\/p>\n

The development has dashed workers\u2019 hopes that Bombardier might step in to buy the historic site as part of Boeing\u2019s $4.7bn takeover<\/a> of the US supplier it had spun out two decades ago. Production carried out on behalf of other companies at the site will transfer to Boeing as the main owner even though none of the work is for the US planemaker.<\/p>\n

The potential impact on jobs was not immediately clear. Spirit employs about 3,500 people across six sites in Belfast that do work for Airbus as well as other aerospace companies, including for Bombardier\u2019s business jets.<\/p>\n

The Canadian company, which bought the plant in 1989 but sold it to Spirit in 2000, was regarded by those involved in the discussions as the most credible purchaser and one union official said it was the only party to have been in advanced talks on the price for the A220 mid-fuselage work. <\/p>\n

Boeing on Tuesday said that \u201ctaking ownership of Belfast is an outcome we\u2019ve known was a possibility for some time\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will warmly welcome Shorts Brothers Belfast to the Boeing family,\u201d it said, adding that it would be \u201cgood stewards of the business\u201d. <\/p>\n

The US group, Airbus and Spirit all confirmed they had informed workers of the expected changes ahead of the deal closing in the third quarter. <\/p>\n

However, Bombardier on Tuesday said it was \u201cactively engaged with all parties to ensure continuity and quality of supply. We remain open to all solutions with regards to the site\u2019s future\u201d.<\/p>\n

One person familiar with the process said the fact that employees have been informed was \u201cthe indicator that talks have not progressed\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPer the agreements, the A220 wing and A350 engineering programmes are expected to transfer to Airbus and, if a suitable third-party buyer is not secured for the remainder of the Belfast site, the A220 mid-fuselage programme transfers to Airbus, with the remaining Belfast operations transferring to Boeing,\u201d said Spirit spokesman Joe Buccino.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cTo date, no suitable buyer has been secured for the remaining Belfast operations. Accordingly, it is expected that the remaining [non-Airbus] Belfast operations transfer to Boeing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Airbus on Tuesday said that as no agreement with a third party buyer had yet been reached \u201cclosing the transaction is now business critical for all parties\u201d. Airbus\u2019 immediate priority, it added, was to \u201cwelcome the transferring employees into the Airbus family and stabilise production\u201d. <\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s Competition and Markets Authority said this week it had begun an antitrust investigation into Boeing\u2019s acquisition of Spirit, with a decision due by August 28.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-229704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-northern-ireland","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114778842442686197","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}