Press release

Vince Cable comments on AirAsia X Airbus order for 25 more A330-300s

Vince Cable responds to the news that AirAsia X has placed a firm order with Airbus for 25 more A330-300s.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Responding to the news that AirAsia X, the long haul affiliate of the AirAsia Group, has placed a firm order with Airbus for 25 more A330-300s Business Secretary Vince Cable said:

The growth of air travel across Asia represents an important opportunity for Britain’s world leading aerospace industry and one of our most successful companies - Airbus - are seizing it.

The UK manufactures some of the most complex parts of these planes and this new order will safeguard highly skilled manufacturing jobs in the company and its suppliers based all around the UK.

The government’s industrial strategy is giving business the confidence to invest - creating more high skilled, long term jobs in the UK. We’re working together with the aerospace industry to deliver a long term plan, backed by £2 billion joint investment, which will cement the global position of British aerospace and build a stronger economy here in the UK.

Notes for editors

  1. The government’s economic policy objective is to achieve ‘strong, sustainable and balanced growth that is more evenly shared across the country and between industries’. It set 4 ambitions in the ‘Plan for Growth’, published at Budget 2011:
  • to create the most competitive tax system in the G20
  • to make the UK the best place in Europe to start, finance and grow a business
  • to encourage investment and exports as a route to a more balanced economy
  • to create a more educated workforce that is the most flexible in Europe

Work is underway across government to achieve these ambitions, including progress on more than 250 measures as part of the Growth Review. Developing an Industrial Strategy gives new impetus to this work by providing businesses, investors and the public with more clarity about the long-term direction in which the government wants the economy to travel.

Published 18 December 2013