Airbus made £442 million contribution to Bristol economy last year, says new report

By Peter Davison

27 September 2023

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An RAF A400M wing at Filton

Aerospace firm Airbus made a £442 million to the Bristol economy last year, according to the manufacturer's latest Oxford Economics survey.

The firm employs more than 2,700 people at Filton, where it designs and manufactures wing technology, fuel management systems, and landing gear.

Across its 25 UK sites the manufacturer – the largest civil aerospace company in the country, the biggest civil aerospace exporter, the largest space satellite company, the biggest supplier of large aircraft to the Royal Air Force –employs 79,000 people.

The company plans to employ a further 1,100 workers at its Filton site.

Airbus UK chairman John Harrison said: "These findings clearly show that Airbus is good for jobs, good for growth, and good for the UK.

"I am proud of the contribution our 11,500 UK employees make to the UK economy - a multi billion pound effort from satellites to civil aerospace that helps connect people all over the world.

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"Our deep roots in the UK supply chain and investment across the four nations create genuine regional and local growth - ensuring Airbus’ impact is felt at every level.

"But the work does not stop here - our continued investment in R&D, a total of £277 million in 2022, is helping to find tangible solutions to the key challenges that affect our world today - from climate change to conflict."

By Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country.

An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts.

Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.