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Politicians and union leaders warned against dismantling Spirit AeroSystems in Northern Ireland after Boeing’s $4.7bn purchase of its former supplier left the region’s biggest manufacturer in limbo.
Alongside Boeing’s acquisition of Spirit announced on Monday, Airbus has separately agreed to take over the production the supplier does on its behalf for its A220 and A350 programmes at four plants in the US, France, Morocco and Belfast.
Spirit has six Belfast plants that make wings and fuselages, the main body of the plane, for Airbus A220 jets.
But the lossmaking Northern Irish operation also makes fuselages and other parts for Bombardier’s business jets plus components for Rolls-Royce and Honda Aircraft, which are all left out of the complex deal and have no immediate buyer.
Spirit said on Monday it would look to sell these, as well as operations in Scotland and Malaysia that support Airbus programmes.
Steve Aiken, deputy Speaker of Northern Ireland’s Stormont assembly and a member of the Ulster Unionist party, feared integrated operations in Belfast, including research and development, risked being sacrificed if the operations were broken up or transferred elsewhere.
“That’s the value-added and that will be split up by dividing the company,” he warned.
Splitting the business would pose practical problems and leave 60 per cent of workers not involved in Airbus production in limbo, said the GMB union.
“It’s a holistic operation — there’s a lot of interdependence” with some workers employed on both Airbus and other contracts, said Alan Malcolm, a senior GMB union representative, who did not rule out industrial action.
Northern Ireland is a supplier to many of the world’s aerospace and defence programmes, and the sector, with £1.9bn in revenue, employs more than 10,000 people, including in supply chains.
Kevin Craven, chief executive of aerospace and defence trade association ADS, told the Financial Times the industry would be “very interested in keeping capacity” in Belfast.
Spirit bought the historic Belfast business when the Canadian industrial conglomerate put it up for sale in 2019. Before that, it was the home of Short Brothers, which in 1909 claimed to be the world’s first aircraft manufacturer after it landed an order from US aviation pioneers the Wright brothers.
Airbus could even seek to offload the A220’s fuselage operations to a third party in the future, according to people familiar with the situation who cautioned that a final decision was likely to take months.
Spirit’s production for Bombardier could make it a logical new owner for the parts of the business Airbus was not taking and any A220 fuselage work in future.
One trade expert in Northern Ireland said: “Doing a deal with Bombardier would be the obvious answer — but that might require a big cheque being written.” Bombardier was not immediately available for comment.
Airbus said as a result of the “intended sale of Spirit to Boeing, [it] was acquiring the most critical work packages that directly concern Airbus programmes”. At this stage, it added, “no operational decisions have been made as to how we would manage these work packages”.
Airbus would work with the UK government and the Northern Ireland executive to “stabilise and improve” Spirit’s operations, it added.
Conor Murphy, Northern Ireland’s economy minister, said a “responsible owner” for the non-Airbus work was needed who would protect skilled jobs.
“We are committed to working closely with Spirit to help them identify any potential buyers to help best support the people in those locations,” said a person close to Boeing, in reference to the operations Spirit is looking to sell to third parties.
Airbus will receive $559mn in compensation from Spirit and will pay a symbolic $1 for the assets. If Spirit does not find a third-party buyer for the work at Prestwick, Airbus would acquire the operations, the plane maker said on Monday.
Airbus has said it wanted to boost production of the A220 to 14 a month by 2026. Spirit said in May it was planning to boost capital expenditure and staffing in Belfast this year to meet demand.