Successful Paris for Airbus is a boost for UK wing manufacturing

In addition to these totals, airlines and lessors also converted 352 existing aircraft orders – mostly from the A320 single-aisle aircraft up to the larger A321neo and also to the new A321XLR. This reflects Airbus successful strategy in offering customers longer-range aircraft in the single-aisle segment.

The company employs 13,000 people at two sites in the UK which produce the wings for Airbus aircraft. Filton is where the engineering and design activity takes place along with some manufacturing, and Broughton is where other major wing component manufacturing and all wing assembly takes place.

Paris Air Show also saw successes for the A220 which won new business for 85 aircraft, the wings for which are manufactured at Bombardier’s site in Belfast.

Airbus also launched the A321XLR at Paris Air Show to complement its best-selling A321neo family. The XLR is the longest-range single-aisle aircraft, which will enable operators in this segment to access markets requiring even more range and payload.

Overall, this newest model won orders for 48 aircraft, commitments for a further 79 aircraft and 99 conversions from A321 to XLR. These came from a wide range of launch customers from around the world.

In the widebody segment, the new A330neo has built on its positive market reception with additional business from Cebu Pacific and Virgin Atlantic.

Airbus www.airbus.com