Airbus has reached a definitive agreement to take over several work packages from US-based Spirit AeroSystems, including A350 fuselage and A220 wing production.
The agreement follows months of negotiations after Boeing disclosed plans to re-acquire Spirit.
Airbus had originally indicated a compensation payment from Spirit of $559 million, set out in a term sheet agreement last July, but it says this has since been adjusted downwards to $439 million.
The compensation – which remain subject to revision at closing, which is foreseen in the third quarter of this year – is designed to cover Airbus’s absorption of loss-making work packages.
As part of the agreement, Airbus will provide Spirit with $200 million in non-interest lines of credit to enable Spirit to support Airbus programmes.
“With this operation, Airbus aims to ensure stability of supply for its commercial aircraft programmes through a more sustainable way forward, both operationally and financially, for key Airbus work packages,” the airframer states.
Airbus will take over ownership of multiple Spirit assets which produce commercial aircraft components and structures for the airframer.
These include the North Carolina A350 fuselage plant at Kinston and the French A350 fuselage site at St Nazaire.
It will also acquire the Scottish production of wing components for the A350 in Prestwick – as well as the site’s A320 component work.
Airbus is taking over A220 wing production at Belfast. It will also acquire A220 mid-fuselage work at the same facility, unless a third-party buyer is identified to take over the part of the site responsible for this activity.
The airframer will pick up the A220 pylon work at Spirit’s site in Wichita, Kansas, as well as the Moroccan production of A220 and A321 components in Casablanca.
Spirit AeroSystems intends to sell a Malaysian site, located in Subang, to a third party.
