Welsh Secretary praises Airbus' success with new major AirAsia order
David Jones has praised Airbus for capitalising on the growth in the South East Asia aviation market.
David Jones with the senior team at AirAsia in Singapore earlier this year.
Today’s announcement was for 25 additional A330-300’s Airbus aircraft, all ordered by AirAsia, demonstrating the crucial role that Wales plays in the highly competitive international aerospace industry.
This is Airbus’ largest single A330 order to date and increases AirAsia’s total A330 orders to 51. The wings will be made at Airbus’ Broughton plant in north Wales, which employs 6,000 people.
The announcement comes one year since Mr Jones joined the Prime Minister David Cameron at the Airbus wing assembly plant in Broughton to welcome a previous Air Asia order for 100 more A320 family aircraft.
This order from AirAsia will directly support 1,500 jobs in the UK as well as a further 7,500 in related industries.
Marking today’s announcement, Secretary of State for Wales David Jones said:
This order comes at the end of what has been another incredibly successful year for Airbus. It further cements Airbus in the UK’s global role in wing technology and will strengthen the order book at the £400million wing factory in Broughton.
I met AirAsia executives in Singapore earlier this year and know they are seeing growth in air travel across South East Asia. So it is great that Airbus are able to capitalise on this particularly as the UK has the second largest aerospace sector in the world, contributing a huge £24 billion to the economy every year and supporting 230,000 jobs across the country.
These deals play a significant part in boosting the Welsh economy and are a real validation of the skills, talents and capabilities of our workforce here in Wales.
Image courtesy of Nina Chua at Ying Comms.