Airbus to hire 400 British engineers in race against crisis-hit Boeing

airbus to hire 400 british engineers in race against crisis-hit boeing

Broughton's West Factory site covers an area larger than 10 football pitches - Paul Cooper

Airbus is to hire 400 engineers at its wing manufacturing plant in Wales as the company races to extend its lead over crisis-hit Boeing in the market for single-aisle jets.

Additional staff will be required at the plant in Broughton, near Chester, as Airbus transforms a building that made wings for the A380 superjumbo into a production line for the best-selling A320neo model.

Covering an area larger than 10 football pitches, the West Factory site is key to plans to lift monthly A320 output from an average of 48 last year to 75 by the end of 2026.

Airbus is also adding staff at its existing A320 facility at the Broughton complex, which makes 90pc of the European company’s wings.

Jerome Blandin, Airbus’s head of global wing production, said the new line will not be as fully automated as the plant’s most recent new A320 wing line, which opened seven years ago, making it potentially more labour intensive.

airbus to hire 400 british engineers in race against crisis-hit boeing

Airbus's head of global wing production, Jerome Blandin, is overseeing efforts to ramp up output at its main UK manufacturing plant - Paul Cooper

The ramp up will help Airbus reduce its six-year manufacturing backlog for the model and make space for new orders. It is expected to heap more pressure on Boeing as the US business slows build rates to address the safety crisis surrounding its 737 Max, the chief global rival to the A320.

Broughton currently employs about 5,000 people and is Airbus’s main UK manufacturing site. A second wing facility at Filton in Bristol is a focus for design, engineering and support and has about 3,000 staff.

The recruitment drive for the new plant comes after Airbus added 1,100 staff in Britain last year across divisions also including defence and space.

The expansion is a far cry from the years before Brexit, when then boss Tom Enders warned that a no-deal departure from the European Union would force Airbus to make some “potentially very harmful decisions for the UK”, including moving wing production elsewhere.

Mr Blandin said one of the challenges for Broughton is to keep pace with the demands of the company’s A320 assembly lines in Toulouse, Hamburg, Alabama and China, while constantly honing the production process for what remains a traditional, metal wing.

airbus to hire 400 british engineers in race against crisis-hit boeing

It takes between six and seven weeks to make an Airbus wing - Paul Cooper

He said: “We will see a level of improvement and a better efficiency on the new production line in terms of how we put the product together.”

Airbus has already taken steps to increase A320 wing capacity at Broughton’s original East Factory site, located across the runway from the former A380 building and dating to 1939, when it was built for the construction of Lancaster and Wellington bombers.

Production is running round the clock in a three-shift pattern and Airbus has taken steps to compress each part of the manufacturing process in an effort to shave days off the six to seven weeks required to make a wing.

The last wholesale expansion of A320 manufacturing capabilities at Broughton came in 2016 with the opening of a new, fully automated production line alongside the existing one, which extended capacity by 26 aircraft wingsets a month to the current 63.

Mr Blandin said that site is possibly too automated and that the new line will take more of a hybrid approach, with robots and time-saving equipment heavily involved but the wings no longer moving in a car-factory style fashion, balancing efficiency with flexibility.

The West Factory is scheduled to commence production next year, with the site cleared of equipment from the A380 programme and production jigs suitable for the smaller A320 under construction at Spanish engineering firm MTorres.

Two paint shops at Broughton, which also makes wings for the A330 and A350 widebodies, are also being extended to cope with the extra work.

Broughton will gain hundreds more jobs if Airbus wins a £1.2bn helicopter order to replace ageing RAF Pumas, having promised to assemble them at the Chester site.

Play The Telegraph’s brilliant range of Puzzles - and feel brighter every day. Train your brain and boost your mood with PlusWord, the Mini Crossword, the fearsome Killer Sudoku and even the classic Cryptic Crossword.

OTHER NEWS

14 minutes ago

REVEALED: The three Bridgerton romances that are blossoming off screen

14 minutes ago

Wife is charged with murder after partner was found dead in a house in Epping, north-west Sydney

14 minutes ago

Indigenous-Asian garden opens in Montreal’s Chinatown

18 minutes ago

As Woodsmith mine is mothballed, job losses will have a seismic impact on the community in Whitby

18 minutes ago

Amazing Red Arrows cockpit footage shows pilot's view of Trooping The Colour flypast

18 minutes ago

More than 300 police officers deployed in KZN for potential post-election unrest

18 minutes ago

Granit Xhaka sends message to Arsenal ahead of captaining Switzerland at Euro 2024

18 minutes ago

U.S. Defense Secretary: "Putin can end this war today."

18 minutes ago

Queen’s Club 2024: Carlos Alcaraz handed tough opener by Cinch Championships draw

18 minutes ago

School Officials Apologize After Students with Special Needs Allegedly Excluded from Grad Ceremony

18 minutes ago

Bear damages garage in Port Coquitlam

20 minutes ago

Video: Euros explode in violence as more than 100 terrifying Albanian thugs try to attack Italian fans ahead of match

20 minutes ago

Video: Nedim Bajrami scores fastest goal in Euros HISTORY to give Albania shock lead over reigning champions Italy after just 23 SECONDS

20 minutes ago

Wife is charged with murder after partner was found dead in a house in Epping, north-west Sydney

20 minutes ago

Biden goes straight from G7 to Hollywood fundraiser, balancing geopolitics with his reelection bid

22 minutes ago

WWE Clash at the Castle results: Drew McIntyre takes on Damian Priest in Scotland but faces interference from rival... as Cody Rhodes defends title in 'I quit' match

23 minutes ago

NASCAR lineup at Iowa: Starting order, pole for 2024 Iowa Corn 350 based on qualifying results

23 minutes ago

New Tesla Model 3 Performance: A Porsche Taycan For Half The Price?

23 minutes ago

Trump ridicules special counsel’s gag order request in new filing in classified documents case

23 minutes ago

LeBron James' Appearance at Aces WNBA Game Sparks Kate Martin Rumors

23 minutes ago

New details about close call during plane landing in Hawaii

23 minutes ago

Met Office 14 Day Weather Outlook 14/06/24

23 minutes ago

“These finals have shown there’s two sides of basketball” - Kendrick Perkins believes Luka Doncic has hurt his ‘stocks’ in the NBA Finals

24 minutes ago

Unique Houston variety show celebrates anniversary with ‘danger, laughter, and sizzling entertainment’

24 minutes ago

The 'Loud Budgeting' Hack That’s Actually Helping People Save Money

24 minutes ago

U.S. Open 2024: Scottie Scheffler records a career worst—that's also pretty amazing

24 minutes ago

“They literally talk about how MM doesn’t eat anymore in the show”: Laz Alonso’s Extreme Weight Loss Gets Seamlessly Woven in The Boys Season 4 That Fans Have Missed

24 minutes ago

Makkah emir reassures excellent services for pilgrims

24 minutes ago

Albania scores after 23 seconds for quickest ever goal at the European Championship

24 minutes ago

Francesco Molinari does unthinkable; makes U.S. Open cut with improbable hole-in-one

24 minutes ago

First tropical storm of 2024 could arrive in the next week

24 minutes ago

Bowman takes a swipe at Hillary Clinton after she backs his opponent: 'Wouldn't call that a major endorsement'

27 minutes ago

‘Christina On The Coast’ Season 5 Gets Premiere Date On HGTV

29 minutes ago

Britain's first black female Olympian Anita Neil thanks MailSport after being awarded an MBE in the King's Birthday Honours list

29 minutes ago

Hardcore MAGA fan who 'prioritized fellow believers' over his own family' reveals why he abandoned Donald Trump

29 minutes ago

'Heartbroken' Hayley Palmer claims ex-boyfriend Mark 'The Beast' Labbett 'lives up to his nickname' after dumping her in a three-minute phone call

29 minutes ago

17-year-old Hurricane Harbor worker saved from nearly drowning

29 minutes ago

England beat Namibia to move to brink of WC Super 8s

29 minutes ago

Germany detects 1,400 unauthorised entries ahead of Euros, Bild says

29 minutes ago

Neighbours became such good friends, the grief was real