Planemaker Airbus says it will create up to 550 new jobs at its huge wing-making plant in Deeside in a £100m investment as it ramps up production by 50%. Tony McDonough reports
Airbus is to create between 450 and 550 jobs at its giant wing-making factory at Broughton in Deeside – less than two years after it cut its workforce at the site by a third.
In January the company, which employs 4,000 people at Broughton many of whom live in Liverpool city region, said it was adding 6,000 people to its global workforce and it is now starting to offer more specific details.
It is a remarkable turnaround for the business following the dark days of the pandemic. In May 2020 Airbus chief executive, Guillaume Faury told executives at the business that it was facing a fight for its survival. The 6,000-strong workforce at Deeside was slashed by a third although most of the losses were voluntary.
Airbus confirmed that it planned to increase production of its popular A320 Family aircraft to 75 per month by 2025. In a statement it said: “The planned production rate increase… in close cooperation with our suppliers and partners, will benefit the entire global industrial value-chain.
“Airbus will meet the higher production rates by investing to increase capacity at its existing commercial aircraft assembly sites, including in the UK, resulting in the creation of additional highly-skilled jobs and employment opportunities.”
On Wednesday the company posted better than expected financial results for the first quarter of 2022. In what it called a “solid” set of results it reported a 15% rise in revenues to €12bn, up 15% on the same quarter last year, with an adjusted EBIT (an alternative measure of profitability) of €1.3bn. It delivered 142 aircraft during the period.
Mr Faury said: “Looking beyond 2022, we see continuing strong growth in commercial aircraft demand driven by the A320 Family.
“As a result we are now working with our industry partners to increase A320 Family production rates further to 75 aircraft a month in 2025. This ramp-up will benefit the aerospace industry’s global value chain.”