Airbus will buy back certain activities essential to several of its aircraft programs from the American equipment manufacturer Spirit Aerosystems, which will itself be reintegrated by Boeing, the European giant announced on Monday.
“Airbus has entered into a binding agreement with Spirit AeroSystems for the potential acquisition of major Airbus-related businesses,” said the European aircraft manufacturer, which will be “compensated by Spirit AeroSystems to the tune of $559 million, for a nominal consideration of $1.00, subject to adjustments, including based on the final scope of the transaction.”
Boeing is by far Spirit’s largest customer, with 60% of its revenue coming from the American aircraft manufacturer in 2022. But the equipment manufacturer is also a strategic supplier to its competitor Airbus.
On Monday morning, Boeing confirmed that it was buying Spirit’s operations – excluding those sold to Airbus – for $4.7 billion. The total amount of the transaction is $8.3 billion, including debt.
The acquisition envisaged by Airbus, subject to a due diligence process by the equipment manufacturer in difficulty, would thus concern “major activities linked to Airbus”, according to the European group.
It would concern in particular the production of fuselage sections of the A350 located in Kinston (North Carolina) and Saint-Nazaire (France), wings and the central fuselage of the A220 in Belfast (Northern Ireland) and Casablanca (Morocco), as well as pylons of the A220 in Wichita (Kansas).
“With this agreement, Airbus intends to ensure the stability of the supply of its commercial aircraft programs through a more sustainable evolution, both operationally and financially, of the various Airbus work packages for which Spirit AeroSystems is currently responsible.”
Launched into an outsourcing policy to keep only the final assembly of aircraft, Boeing separated in 2005 from its Wichita (Kansas) factory, specialized in aerostructures, giving birth to Spirit Aerosystems. The company has since diversified its customers and grown through acquisitions.
Struggling with recurring quality and production issues, Spirit AeroSystems has been under scrutiny since a Jan. 5 incident when a fuel cap holder on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 came loose in mid-flight.
These difficulties led Boeing, itself the subject of several investigations for non-compliance issues, to announce in early March that it was considering reintegrating Spirit, which was part of the American giant until 2005. It was unthinkable for Airbus that its main competitor would become one of its strategic suppliers.
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury had thus confided at the end of April that he was monitoring the situation “closely”.
“We do not want large work packages to be provided by our main and only competitor,” he stressed.
