Airbus responds to uncertainty around Brexit

The chief executive of Airbus, Guillaume Faury, has said there is a lot of hope Boris Johnson’s new Brexit deal will be the foundation of a healthy EU relationship.

Mr Faury said: “There’s a lot of work to be done... But there’s a lot of hope that, based on the withdrawal agreement, there will be a healthy relationship between the UK and the EU, and we are trying to play a role in explaining what is necessary.”

The current withdrawal agreement could see Britain leave the EU on 31^st January if the Conservative Party win a majority in the upcoming December election.

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The aircraft manufacturers employs over 13,000 people in the UK involved in wing engineering and manufacturing, and 110,000 work in its UK industry supply chain.

The chief executive also told Bloomberg that a no-deal scenario would make it less likely to invest in Britain.

“Uncertainty is a problem for us – we are a long-term investor and would not like to be in a situation where we have to make a very important investment decision with such uncertainty,” the Airbus boss said.

When asked whether Airbus would move its wing production out of Britain regardless of Brexit, Mr Faury added: “We have a very strong base in the UK and we are very happy with this industrial base. We have no reason to move production out of the UK. It would be difficult anyway, these are huge industrial systems - you can’t just move them.”

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He also added that the UK has a “very competitive ecosystem” for the aerospace industry, and that Airbus hopes and believes “the ecosystem will remain competitive, and that the UK will continue to have a commercial and trade relationship with the EU.”

Airbus www.airbus.com