Much has changed in Belfast since the 1930s. Yet through the second world war, decades of Troubles and the steep decline of heavy industry, the Short Brothers factory has continued to make planes and parts.
Yet now a takeover by US planemaker Boeing of the factory’s owner, Spirit AeroSystems, has raised questions over its future. Workers and politicians fear a new ownership structure could lead to steep job cuts at one of Northern Ireland’s main manufacturers, which has about 3,500 employees.
Boeing announced the $4.7bn takeover of Spirit on Monday, as it tries to regain control of parts of its supply chain after safety failures. However, Spirit is also a key supplier to its bitter rival Airbus as it makes wings and fuselage for the small A220 passenger jet. There was little prospect of Boeing supplying its European competitor, so Spirit will hand Airbus its factories in Belfast, France, Morocco and in Kansas and North Carolina in the US.
Alan Perry, senior organiser at the GMB union, which represents workers at the plant, says about 40% of the factory’s revenue comes from making parts for Airbus. (The remainder is from companies such as Bombardier, Rolls-Royce and Honda Aircraft.)
“The genuine fear is over the other 60%,” he says. “We’re very much still in limbo. Even if Airbus remains on site, we’re looking at the break-up of the factory.”
Belfast’s industrial icons are in a tough place. The Short Brothers factory’s next-door neighbour, the Harland & Wolff shipyard, was forced to suspend its shares on Monday after failing to file audited accounts on time.
The Airbus deal gives a strong sign that the Spirit assets it has taken over are not financially attractive: Spirit will pay Airbus $559m (£442m) to take the operations off its hands before the Boeing merger. Just four years ago, Spirit took over Bombardier’s operations in Northern Ireland, Morocco and Dallas in the US in a £211m deal.
The Belfast operation, which still trades under the historical Short Brothers name, has not reported a profit since 2016. In the last decade of published financial results, it has reported cumulative losses of more than $1bn (£789m) – including $500m (£395m) in 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the aircraft industry.
It is a difficult situation for a company that is the world’s oldest aircraft manufacturer. The business traces its history to 1897, when Eustace Short started a company with his brother Oswald to make balloons. Manufacturing first started in Hove, then London, before they switched to aircraft construction after hearing of the Wright brothers’ successful demonstrations of their aircraft. The Shorts obtained the British rights to build copies of the Wright design, setting up the world’s first aeroplane factory on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, in 1909.
The move to Belfast came in the 1930s, as the government realised that factories in south-east England would be vulnerable in the imminent war. Since then it has produced aircraft or parts constantly, under government ownership between 1943 and 1989, and then as part of Canada’s Bombardier until Spirit bought it in 2020.
That long history – even through the Troubles that roiled the country for decades and stymied the development of the economy in the north of Ireland – has made it a key source of well-paid employment in a region that lags behind the rest of the UK.
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Kevin Craven, chief executive of ADS, a lobby group for the UK aerospace and defence industries, says consolidation “should not be to the detriment of our economic security of our sectors.
“It remains the case that Northern Ireland plays a pivotal role in UK advanced manufacturing, delivering exceptional capabilities that are world-renowned for their quality,” he says. “It is vital that sites are maintained across these engineering centres of excellence and advanced manufacturing footprints.”
The takeover could be an early test for Hilary Benn, currently Labour’s shadow Northern Ireland secretary, if the party sweeps to power on Thursday as expected. It is understood that he has been briefed on the situation.
Local politicians are concerned. Northern Irish economy minister Conor Murphy has said he wanted “to ensure that the future status of the highly skilled workforce is protected”, while Ulster Unionist party finance spokesperson Steve Aiken said the government must make sure work is not moved elsewhere.
For the workforce, the takeover could mean weeks of uncertainty, with the potential for knock-on economic effects.
“It is a major employer, not only within the local east Belfast area, but outside that as well,” says Perry. Job losses will have “consequences not only in the supply chain but in the wider economy”.