Airbus flies in on a wing and a prayer in Wales

AIRBUS yesterday opened its £400 million wing plant in Wales, the largest factory to be built in the UK in the past five years.

Some 650 people will work at the facility in Broughton, Flintshire, which will produce the wings for the company’s new aircraft, the A350.

A further 5,000 jobs will be supported by the A350 XWB programme across the wider supply chain, a spokesman for European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) said.

The opening came as Rolls-Royce yesterday unveiled a deal to raise about £950m from a joint venture it helped set up nearly 30 years ago.

The group is selling its stake in International Aero Engines (IAE), which produces the V2500 engine for the Airbus 320, to one of the venture’s existing partners, US firm Pratt & Whitney.

However, the two firms will continue to work together under a new partnership aimed at developing engines for future mid-sized aircraft carrying between 120 and 230 passengers.