Boost for Belfast factory that makes aircraft parts

As well as the wings part of the A220 fuselage is made at the Spirt Aerosystems operation in east Belfast

A Polish airline has ordered 40 Airbus A220 planes, the wings of which are made in Belfast.

The firm, Lot, has placed an order with Airbus for 20 A220-100s and 20 of the larger A220-300s.

The company could ultimately buy up to to 84 A220s, it announced at the Paris Air Show.

As well as the wings, part of the A220 fuselage is made at the Spirit Aerosystems operation in east Belfast.

Purchased expected late 2025

Airbus is currently in the process of buying Spirit's A220 wing manufacturing operations.

Michał Fijoł, the chief executive of Lot, said the airline would start operating A220s in 2027 as part of gradual fleet modernisation.

At the end of May 2025, the A220 had secured more than 900 firm orders from more than 30 customers worldwide, with over 415 aircraft already delivered.

Airbus is expected to complete the purchase of the A220 wing plant in Belfast later this year but there is still uncertainty for much of the workforce at Spirit.

Spirit's wider global business is being carved up between Boeing and Airbus, the world's largest aircraft manufacturers.

The major uncertainty in Belfast is for the workers on the non-Airbus part of the business, which mostly involves work on a range of Bombardier business jets.

Those workers will become part of Boeing by default if a third party does not buy the remainder of the Belfast business.

Unions have called on Airbus and the UK government to find a way to keep the whole Belfast site under a single owner.

They have warned that a loss of economies of scale and the fragmenting of production lines poses a risk to the long-term future of aerospace in Northern Ireland and the highly skilled jobs in the sector.