Airbus Paid To Take Irish Factory As Part Of Boeing-Spirit Deal

Airbus is being paid $559 million to take over an Irish aircraft parts factory as a result of the Boeing's acquisition of Spirit Aerosystems. Boeing announced Monday it had bought Spirit and the main part of the deal was the Wichita plant it sold to Spirit 20 years ago. The $4.7 billion deal is part of Boeing's effort to tighten quality control after a series of tragic and embarrassing accidents and mishaps. The Monday deal will give Boeing control of the Kansas facility that builds the fuselages for the 737 MAX series. It was in that plant where the chain of events began that led to the loss of a door plug in an Alaska Airlines MAX 9 last January in Oregon. But to get control of the Wichita operation, Boeing had to ensure Spirit's other major customer Airbus would continue to get the parts it needs.

The former Spirit facilities in Belfast (originally the Shorts Aircraft plant) build major components for Airbus's A350 and A220 aircraft and obviously couldn't continue to do so with Boeing at the helm. So Boeing agreed to take a symbolic $1 payment from Airbus for the facilities used to make Airbus parts. Then Spirit used $559 million of the money it got from Boeing to compensate Airbus for having to take over building parts for its own airplanes.

It's even more complicated than that. Spirit also makes parts for Bombardier business jets and Boeing will be assuming that business. In fact only about 40% of the work in Belfast goes to Airbus components. How the rest of it is managed or carved up is a major concern for Northern Ireland business and union leaders. Bombardier used to own the Belfast plant but sold it to Spirit as part of a massive asset liquidation in 2020. The plant is Northern Ireland's biggest manufacturing concern with about 3,500 skilled workers.