Spirit’s Belfast unit in limbo after Boeing announces $4.7bn deal

Politicians and union leaders warned against dismantling Spirit AeroSystems in Northern Ireland after Boeing’s $4.7 billion purchase of its former supplier left the region’s biggest manufacturer in limbo.

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.

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. 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.

Airbus said as a result of the “intended sale of Spirit to Boeing, 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”.

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