Yahoo Finance Airbus threatens to pull out of UK in 'no deal' Brexit scenario
Plane-maker Airbus has warned it could pull out of the UK if Britain bows out of the EU without a trade deal.
The pan-European manufacturer – which employs about 15,000 staff directly in Britain – signalled its frustration at political infighting which is delaying deals on critical areas such as aviation regulation and customs rules.
Airbus’s plants in Broughton and Bristol build wings and landing gear for the company’s airliners, and also carry out advanced design work.
Without an agreement on aviation certification rules, parts built in the UK after Brexit may not be certified, meaning aircraft are grounded.
Tom Williams, chief operating officer at Airbus, spelled out the risks that failure to achieve a deal entail for the company’s operations in the UK, which support more than 100,000 jobs.
“In any scenario, Brexit has severe negative consequences for the UK aerospace industry and Airbus in particular,” said Mr Williams, the most senior Briton in the company.
“Immediate mitigation measures would need to be accelerated. While Airbus understands that the political process must go on, as a responsible business we require immediate details on the pragmatic steps that should be taken to operate competitively.”
He warned that, unless action was taken to secure a deal, there would be “significant impact” on the company’s UK operations, something the company has been trying to spell out to politicians for the past year “without success”.
Mr Williams added: “Far from Project Fear, this is a dawning reality for Airbus. Put simply, a No Deal scenario directly threatens Airbus’ future in the UK.”
The company said it had decided to speak out after a risk assessment which concluded that Britain leaving the EU without a deal and no transition period would cause “severe disruption and interruption of UK production”.
Because almost all the wings for the company’s airliners are made in the UK, this could cause production at Airbus plants around the world to be halted.
The company added that risk of this happening had forced it to “reconsider its investments in the UK, and its long-term footprint in the country, severely undermining UK efforts to keep a competitive and innovative aerospace industry, developing high value jobs and competences”.
The company said, while an orderly transition as Britain leaves the EU is preferable to a no-deal situation, it believes the current transition period which runs out in December 2020 is “too short” for both parties to thrash out disputed matters and for the company to make the required changes to its huge supply chain.
As a consequence, the company said it would be monitoring any new investments in the UK and “refrain from extending the UK suppliers/partners base”.
Speaking on the BBC's Today programme, Mr Williams said the company was becoming “increasingly frustrated” and had decided to “push the button on crisis actions”. “It’s not a one-off decision, it will be a series of significant decision that will accumulate over the coming months,” he said.
"We can’t continue with the current vacuum in terms of clarity,” he added.
Airbus is the biggest company to speak out so plainly about the impact that Brexit is likely to have on it since the referendum in 2016.
Stephen Crabb, the Tory MP, said the warning from Airbus should be a "wake-up call".
The former Secretary of State for Wales, who represents Preseli Pembrokeshire, tweeted: "The enormous Airbus factory in North Wales is one of the jewels in the crown of UK manufacturing. This is a wake-up call. A pragmatic, sensible Brexit that protects trade & jobs is vital."
Sir Keir Starmer, Shadow Brexit Secretary tweeted: "If proof was needed that the PM's Brexit red lines need to be abandoned (and fast), this is it."
The news is likely to start an intense competition between the company’s other plants around the world to bid for manufacturing currently done in the UK.
While all plants bid for work, the established presence and technical expertise in the UK has give Broughton and Bristol a massive edge which has allowed them to maintain their position.
Airbus' two biggest shareholders are the French and German governments, who each have an 11pc stake.
