Aircraft

Construction of Rolls-Royce's engine factory and Pratt & Whitney's component repair shop at Singapore's Seletar Airport has been delayed.

A spokesman for Singapore's Economic Development Board (EDB) says construction of the R-R and P&W facilities has yet to start which means there will be no R-R factory or P&W facility opening this year at Seletar.

He was unable to say when construction will start or give a new time-frame for openings but he stresses R-R and P&W are still committed to building at Seletar.

P&W announced early last year it would be building an engine component repair shop at Seletar.

But the R-R factory is arguably the more significant of the two investments because this factory, which is to make Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 engines, was due to open later this year and be the first R-R commercial aircraft engine factory outside of Britain.

R-R's apparent move to delay comes at time when it is coming under increasing political pressure at home to create jobs in the UK and help the country's long-suffering manufacturing industry.

The financial economic crisis and the sharp fall in oil prices has led some in the British government and financial media to conclude that the UK can no longer rely on the financial services sector and North Sea oil to prop up its economy.