Unions call for Government to step in to prevent potential break-up of Belfast based Spirit AeroSystems
April 29, 2025
Trade Unions Unite (officially known as Unite the Union) and the GMB have called on the British Government to intervene to prevent the break-up of the Spirit AeroSystems factory complex in Belfast, after Airbus finalised a deal to take over part of the operation.
Airbus has announced that it will buy only those Spirit production lines within its own supply chain, meaning that only around 1,100 Belfast workers employed in the manufacture of Airbus wings will be taken on by the company directly. The 400-500 workers employed on Airbus fuselage manufacture for Spirit will be taken on by Airbus only if a “suitable buyer” cannot be found before the transaction closes, and “with longer-term uncertainty outside the current contract period.”
Unite say that the remaining 2,000 workers, who are employed on ‘non-Airbus work’ currently “do not know the identity of their future employer and have no assurances for their employment.” Airbus noted that: “Non-Airbus operations in Belfast will transfer to Boeing or may be divested to a third party by Spirit prior to closing.” Spirit insists that the “portion of the Belfast site that will not be divested to Airbus will retain an extensive regional/business-jet product portfolio.”
DUP Leader Gavin Robinson has demanded “clarity around the non-Airbus operations within Belfast.” Fearful of losing thousands of Northern Ireland’s best paid jobs, the Unions have called for the Belfast sites to be sold to a single buyer.
‘Unite the Union’ has said that it is “seeking the transfer of all Spirit sites and production in Northern Ireland to a single aircraft manufacturer. This would secure onsite and regional synergies and economies of scale and is the best way to safeguard jobs and the future of Northern Ireland’s aerospace sector. The demand is backed by all local political parties and Stormont ministers. Unite calculates that around 10,000 jobs across the whole of Ireland are reliant on Spirit Aerospace.”
Alan Perry, a Senior Organiser at the GMB union, said that the “best solution for the Belfast sites is to remain as one identity… GMB has engaged with Stormont ministers who agree [that] a carve up does not benefit the company or the wider Northern Ireland economy.
Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, said that: “Hundreds of highly skilled Spirit workers are facing an uncertain future. The UK government must now intervene to secure not just the workers but the future of Northern Ireland aerospace. The government has huge leverage over the key players – billions in contracts and government grants go to these aircraft manufacturers. It cannot drop the ball and allow the collapse of Northern Ireland’s strategic and world-class aerospace sector. Government needs to deliver for Northern Ireland.”
Owned by Boeing aerostructures business Spirit Aerosystems, what is still known as Short Brothers has had a convoluted recent history, and primarily produces components and sub assemblies for Airbus and Bombardier. Bombardier once owned the site, and the Airbus A220 began life as the Bombardier CSeries, before Airbus acquired a majority stake in the programme in 2018, under the Airbus Canada Limited Partnership. Spirit bought the Belfast operation from Bombardier in 2020, though it continued to produce parts for Bombardier’s aircraft.
The Spirit Aerospace operation covers six manufacturing sites in and around Belfast, and predominantly supplies parts for the Airbus A220 (wing and centre fuselage), together with centre fuselages for the Challenger, forward fuselages for the Global 5500 and 6500, and horizontal stabilizers for all Globals (including the Global 7500), as well as other key components including engine nacelles.
Spirit AeroSystems was established in 2005 when Boeing spun-off its Wichita aerostructures division to an investment firm. Spirit subsequently diversified, acquiring BAE Systems aerostructures business at Glasgow Prestwick Airport and Samlesbury Aerodrome, and opening new factories in Subang, Malaysia and Kinston, North Carolina before acquiring Bombardier Aviation’s aerostructures activities and aftermarket services operations in Belfast and Casablanca in 2019.
In the wake of significant and well-publicised manufacturing and quality problems, Boeing decided to bring its aerostructures back in house, and entered into an agreement to re-acquire Spirit in July 2024 for US $4.7 billion. Boeing naturally has little interest in Spirit’s work for Airbus, Bombardier and Gulfstream, and set about selling off those parts of the Spirit business – several of which were loss-making. The Belfast operation reported a loss of US $338m in 2023, and has made cumulative losses of more than $1.2bn since its last turned a profit in 2016.
