Chance for Airbus plant at Broughton to seal US tanker contract is slipping away

Mar 11 2010 by Eleanor Barlow, Flintshire Chronicle

BILLIONS of pounds worth of work on wings for a new generation of airborne refuelling tankers for the United States Air Force is slipping away from Broughton’s Airbus plant.

Airbus parent company EADS has ruled out a solo bid for the lucrative military contract a day after its American partner Northrop Grumman revealed it was pulling out.

Wings for the aircraft would constitute about 20% of the value of the £27bn order – meaning the Broughton plant could get work worth £5bn.

That would have helped to secure thousands of jobs at the site.

The EADS/Northrop Grumman consortium had first won the tanker contract in 2008 but rival Boeing challenged the process and forced the Pentagon to re-run the competition.

EADS chief executive Louis Gallois said Northrop’s withdrawal from the tanker tender meant Airbus had ‘no chance to win in the competition’.

Alyn and Deeside MP Mark Tami said Airbus’s parent group had withdrawn because it was clear the competition was being rigged so only Boeing could win.

“The company has said it will take its chance in a fair contest, but gerrymandering conditions have been imposed so that the only outcome is a win for Boeing with a vastly inferior plane,” said Mr Tami.