Airbus converts Broughton wing plant to A321 line, adding 480 jobs

Airbus is converting its former A380 wing facility at Broughton in North Wales into an A321 wing line at a cost of GBP 150 million: six production jigs, an equipping line and a paint shop; the first wing is already in production and all six jigs are due to be operational by the end of 2026. Around 480 additional jobs are being created during 2026, roughly 250 of them inside the refurbished building, on top of the site's some 6,000 employees. The background is the ramp-up towards rate 75 against a backlog of about 7,500 A320 Family aircraft, around 75 % of them A321s (Airbus press release, 21 Sept 2026).