Airbus chief pledges to stay in UK if Brexit goes through

Bloomberg

Airbus SE Chief Executive Officer Guillaume Faury said the latest Brexit deal between Britain and European Union should pave the way for the aerospace giant to carry on making plane wings in the UK.
The British division, which employs 14,000 people and supports 110,000 supplier jobs, is “very competitive” and will remain a focus for wing production so long as a no-deal split
is avoided, Faury said in an interview.
“We have a very strong industrial and technical base in the UK,” the CEO, who took over in April, told Bloomberg Television. “We are very happy with what we have. There is no reason to move production out of the UK.”
Faury’s comments mark a softening of Airbus’s rhetoric on Brexit compared with predecessor Tom Enders, who was one of the most vocal critics of the schism among European business chiefs.
The Toulouse, France-based company has been approached by at least seven governments looking to poach future wing work, people familiar with the matter said last year.
Faury said shifting production away from Airbus plants near Bristol and Chester would also be extremely difficult.
“There are huge industrial systems,” he said. “You can’t just move them.”
The CEO said Airbus’s concerns have centred on short-term risks from a no-deal Brexit, seen as likely to disrupt supply chains and comprise a complex manufacturing system that draws on parts from plants spread across Europe.
The current withdrawal agreement, which could see Britain leave the EU on January 31 if Prime Minister Boris Johnson wins a December 12 election, would remove that hurdle, he said, while cautioning that the shaping of a future trade relationship to follow transitional arrangements remains a challenge for negotiators.