New Airbus wing plant secures 6,000 Welsh jobs

AIRBUS is to open a new £400m plant at the company's current site in Flintshire, Wales, in a move that it is hoped will secure the future of the 6,000 workers currently employed there.

Although the new plant at Broughton will only employ 650 people, they will be assembling carbon-fibre wings for the new Airbus A350, a highly desirable plane that is supposed to be 25% more fuel efficient than similar models. This will generate more work for the entire plant, which specialises in wing production.

The company has already had more than 550 orders for the A350, which is in direct competition with Boeing's long-delayed Dreamliner 787. The A350 will be the first plane to feature wings that are more than 50% carbon-fibre, and the Welsh government has invested £29m towards composite wing training and advanced manufacturing at Broughton.

Llyr Huws Gruffydd, Plaid Cymru's North Wales AM, said: "At a time when jobs are very hard to come by, news that highly skilled work will be available at this new plant in the north is a huge vote of confidence in the local workforce."

Read a full report at BBC News. ·