Airbus is set to secure the long-term future of almost 3,000 UK aerospace jobs after striking a long-awaited carve-out deal from Boeing’s takeover of Spirit AeroSystems, a move that ends months of uncertainty for workers in Belfast and Prestwick.
Sources say the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer will announce as early as Monday that it is taking on 1,550 staff at Spirit’s Belfast operations and a further 1,200 at the company’s plant in Prestwick, Scotland. It marks a major breakthrough in negotiations that have rumbled on since Boeing agreed a $4.7bn acquisition of Spirit last year.
The UK facilities — which produce wings, fuselage sections and critical aerostructure components for both Airbus and Boeing, have been operating under short-term agreements while the companies worked to untangle a deal that preserved the cross-supplier production lines.
For months, the fate of thousands of workers had appeared to hinge on whether Airbus and Boeing could agree terms. The Belfast site, formerly Short Brothers — and one of the crown jewels of the UK’s aerospace heritage, recorded a $670m loss in 2024, prompting concern for its future viability.
Under the emerging agreement, Boeing will pay Airbus a substantial dowry, expected to be in the hundreds of millions, to offset ongoing losses at the Belfast operation. Boeing is also expected to retain about 2,000 Spirit staff not transferring to Airbus.
Airbus plans to take full ownership of the Belfast wing facility, while co-locating with Boeing in another building producing A220 fuselages. Planning activity is already under way for what insiders expect will be an expansion of the wing plant, reinforcing the UK’s global reputation as a centre of excellence for wing design and manufacturing.
Prestwick will also shift under Airbus control, continuing production of leading and trailing wing edges for the A320 and A350 programmes.
Boeing moved to re-acquire Spirit after a series of high-profile safety failures, including the January 2024 mid-air blowout of a door plug on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max and the earlier fatal crashes of the Max programme in 2018 and 2019. Spirit, once part of Boeing before being spun out in 2005, has been embroiled in the fallout from the supply-chain and quality issues affecting the Max line.
Airbus, meanwhile, has capitalised on Boeing’s troubles to reclaim its crown as the world’s largest commercial aircraft manufacturer, though it, too, has faced pressures, including a software glitch last month that forced urgent updates across airline fleets.
Once the Spirit workforce transfers, Airbus’s total UK headcount, across civil aerospace and defence, will rise to about 14,000. The UK remains integral to Airbus’s global manufacturing footprint, with major wing programmes centred in north Wales and advanced design teams in Bristol.
The announcement also represents a rare win for the UK industrial base at a time when manufacturers are battling higher energy costs, rising payroll taxes and global competition for investment.
Boeing confirmed this week that it expects to complete its Spirit acquisition by year-end, after receiving approval from the US Federal Trade Commission. Airbus described the FTC ruling as “a significant milestone” towards securing Spirit’s capabilities “essential to our commercial aircraft programmes”.
A formal announcement from Airbus is expected early next week.
