Unions warn of job cuts in factory deal

AIRBUS finalised an agreement yesterday to take over some plants from Spirit AeroSystems in a carve-up of the struggling supplier with rival Boeing, as unions raised concerns over politically sensitive jobs in Northern Ireland.

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The deal comes almost a year after Boeing agreed to buy back its main fuselage supplier, some two decades after spinning it off for $4.7 billion in stock, while Airbus moved to take on Spirit’s loss-making Europe-focused activities.

The unprecedented co-ordinated decision between planemakers to prevent a collapse of the world’s largest independent aerostructures supplier follows years of financial pressure on Spirit, brought to a head by Boeing’s recent 737 MAX crisis.

The transfer to Airbus includes plants in Kinston, North Carolina, where Spirit makes a crucial part of the A350 fuselage, and a plant in Belfast, Northern Ireland, that makes carbon-fibre wings for the smaller A220.