Airbus employs 14,000 persons in the United Kingdom, “with a further 110,000 working in jobs supported by our UK programmes, which generate roughly six billion pounds of turnover every year,” the Airbus CEO said.
He stressed that the size of the group’s operations in the UK and the fact that it has “huge plans here” would not prevent it from moving elsewhere, a claim made by some hard-line Brexiteers. “They are wrong!” he stressed. “Of course, it is not possible to pick up and move our large U.K. factories to other parts of the world immediately. However, airspace is a long-term business and we could be forced to redirect future investments in the event of a no-deal Brexit.”
“Make no mistake,” Enders added, “there are plenty of countries out there who would love to build the wings for Airbus aircraft…”
Finally, the Airbus chief had a message for UK politicians: “If you’re really sure that Brexit is the best for Britain, come together and deliver a pragmatic withdrawal agreement that allows for an orderly Brexit.”
Oscar Schneider
–