Airbus to open £400m wing factory

Airbus will open its new £400 million wing factory in Wales today.

The facility, the largest factory to be built in the UK in the past five years, will produce the wings for the company's new aircraft, the A350.

Some 650 people will work at the Airbus North Factory in Broughton, Flintshire.

A further 5,000 jobs will be supported by the A350 XWB programme across the wider supply chain, a spokesman for European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) said.

Currently employing 6,000 people, the 700-acre Airbus site at Broughton specialises in wing production.

The North Factory assembly line will produce the 31-metre wings for the new aircraft, which is scheduled to enter service in 2013.

PA