UK aerospace puts brave face on Brexit

FARNBOROUGH, ENGLAND: With UK factories working at full tilt to meet bumper demand for aeroplanes, aerospace executives have been quick to brush aside fears of any imminent threat from Britain’s exit from the European Union.

The industry is locked into production cycles that can take up to three decades to play out, big customers like Boeing have rallied to support local suppliers and more work is coming Britain’s way as the US.aerospace giant and its European rival Airbus ramp up output.

That means it could be years before any real impact of the UK’s divorce from the European Union becomes clear.

For now, many of those attending the Farnborough Airshow this week said they were drawing up lists of what was needed as Britain rethinks its trading relationships.

“We will simply get on with it,” Warren East, the chief executive of Britain’s biggest aerospace company Rolls-Royce , told reporters.

The UK’s pre-eminence in aerospace, as the biggest player in the world after the United States, is driven by know-how and a record of industrial efficiency built up over decades.

Currently, British suppliers are trying to deal with a surge in business, with output up 39 per cent in the last five years, much of it driven by exports.

And since the vote to leave the EU on June 23, two big aerospace investors, Boeing and Italy’s Leonardo Finmeccanica , which makes helicopters in the UK, have both said they planned to increase their British presence.

The concern is that the UK’s standing could weaken over time.

Although it is the heart of design and production for Airbus passenger jet wings, and its Broughton plant in Wales is one of the group’s most efficient facilities, some wings are now equipped in Airbus’s Bremen factory in Germany.

Industry executives conceded that Brexit will force them to work harder to win new business, including those crucial new programmes at Airbus which might otherwise be awarded to the aerospace giant’s industrial bases in France and Germany.

“Nothing comes to us naturally, so if the UK is going to succeed in the future, it’s got to have the best economics and the best technology,” said Marcus Bryson, a former executive at FTSE 100 parts supplier GKN, who was last year named as a lead UK government adviser for aerospace.

Other areas of concern include whether Britain could risk losing its place at the top table on big aerospace projects if it is locked out of vital research funding and that throwing up new borders will add costs and complexity for companies trying to move goods and people around a global business, making them think twice about new investments in the UK. — Reuters