Boeing Australia loses Airbus work

The contract to build Airbus A380 winglets has been lost to the Australian industry with the work going to RUAG in Switzerland.

Australia had an initial contract to manufacture 36 of the big wingtip devices for the airliner with the work being done by Boeing Aerostructures at Sydney’s Bankstown Airport. Earlier this year Boeing announced it is to close the factory in 2012.

It has about 300 staff who have been offered jobs in the company’s facility in Melbourne, but this depends on there being positions available at the time.

Boeing will not discuss any of the work performed at the facility.

The transfer of the manufacture of the devices to Switzerland, with its high man-hour pay rates, leads to questions about Boeing Australia’s performance in contract manufacturing work.

Also soon to be lost to the Boeing factories in Australia is the manufacture of winglets for the in-demand Airbus A330.

It also wants to give up the long running contract to manufacture flaps for the Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules as well as fire proofed tail cones for the Bombardier Challenger bizjet.

Clearly there must be other big plans to emerge...