Formation flying Going it alone is not an attractive option for today’s aerospace companies – even the biggest. Murdo Morrison reports.
IT
is hard to understate Airbus boss Tom Enders’ feelings about Brexit – particularly the no-deal version. The UK has been part of the company he runs since forming a consortium with France, Germany and Spain exactly 50 years ago to build the ‘Airbus’ widebody jet as Europe’s challenger to the USA’s airliner market dominance. In 2018, Airbus delivered a record 800 singleand twin-aisle aircraft, and, as they have for half a century, its plants in Bristol, Broughton, and now Belfast, designed and manufactured the wings for each one. Enders – who departs as chief executive in April – has never made a secret of his displeasure over the UK’s planned departure from the EU. However, in January, the German industrialist issued his strongest warning yet about what might happen after 31 March. Airbus, he said, was “not dependent on the UK” for its future, and while it could not relocate wing production lines to other parts of the world immediately, “aerospace is a long-term business and we could be forced to redirect future investments in the event of a no-deal Brexit.” With 14,000 employees in the country, Airbus is, along with BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce, one of the UK’s biggest aerospace, defence and security employers, 6 Industry Europe
and an industrial asset the country could ill-afford to lose. Governments in Germany and Spain – not to mention China – have long harboured ambitions to usurp the UK’s privileged role. As Enders noted: “Make no mistake – there are plenty of countries out there who would love to build the wings for Airbus aircraft.” How seriously to take Enders’ threat? While some Brexiteer MPs dismissed it as ‘project fear’, UK ministers enjoy little leverage when it comes to future Airbus investment decisions. Neither the state nor any British company is a shareholder in the group, with the majority of its shares now floating freely on various European stock exchanges. On the other hand, wing production is about more than simply bolting and shipping large sheets of metal – it involves design expertise and intellectual property that has evolved in the country over decades. The UK’s – and now Airbus’s – wing production capabilities include Bombardier’s factory in Belfast after the European group finalised a deal to acquire the Canadian company’s ailing CSeries programme in mid-2018. The 110- to 130-seat airliner, now renamed the A220 as part of the A-prefixed Airbus range, will continue to be assembled in Mirabel, near Montreal, and now also in Airbus’s new factory in Mobile, Alabama. The Belfast
plant, still owned by Bombardier, will go on supplying the composite wings. Bombardier – which also makes aerostructures for business and regional jets in Northern Ireland – sees the Airbus takeover of the A220 as an opportunity to win a role on the European manufacturer’s successor to the fast selling A320neo narrowbody, likely to launch next decade. Airbus has begun a ‘Wing of tomorrow’ research and development project, and, Brexit outcomes permitting, Bombardier believes its expertise designing and building the A220’s innovative carbonfibre wing could give it an edge over Airbus’s in-house facilities. Across Europe – and throughout the global supply chain – the success of Airbus and Boeing in the commercial aircraft market has been good news, as well as challenging, for the industry. During 2018, the big two broke output records, delivering just over 1600 airliners between them. However, as both manufacturers continue to ramp-up to monthly production rates of over 60 units to fulfil a combined order backlog of over 10,000 just for their A320neo and 737 Max narrowbody families, suppliers are under pressure to keep up the pace. One worrying sign, however, is a 20 per cent drop in net orders over the previous year. While demand for airliners remains strong in
