The Secretary of State for Wales has been on a visit to Airbus’ final assembly line at Toulouse. Reporter SAM YARWOODwas there to join him and speak to some of the expats now working at the French plant

AIRBUS will continue to remain at the forefront of the world’s aeronautical industry, says the Secretary of State for Wales.

MP David Jones visited the company’s headquarters in Toulouse, France, last week to meet employees and take a tour of the Airbus A380 and A350 assembly lines.

The wings for the aircrafts are made in Broughton and Mr Jones highlighted the importance of Airbus to both the North Wales and UK economy.

He said: “There are over 6,000 people working in Broughton, and many more indirect jobs depending upon the Airbus factory and coming here to Toulouse actually makes you realise what the end of the process is.

“These enormous aircrafts – the A380s and A350s – each and every one of them is flying on wings that were made in Broughton so aeronautical excellence is very important to the North Wales economy just as much as it is the UK as a whole.

“The British aeronautical industry is the biggest in Europe, the second biggest in the world, and we are very anxious to ensure that we maintain our leadership.”

Mr Jones’ visit was timed to coincide with launch of the second round of bidding for the �40m industry and government-funded National Aerospace Technology Exploitation Programme (NATEP).

The scheme will allow more small and medium-sized companies to apply for a share of the multi-million pound funding pot to help innovate technologies for new products or manufacturing processes over the next four years.

Mr Jones added: “As you know we have recently made an announcement to enable more funding for smaller and medium-sized businesses to be brought up and to improve their excellence within the industry. We are very conscious of the fact that this is a very important part of both the local and national economy and we want to do everything we can to encourage it.”

The Secretary of State made the announcement at a special networking event hosted by aerospace trade organisation, ADS Group, in Toulouse.

The programme, which will be open to aerospace suppliers in January next year, is designed to create or retain 1,200 jobs within the supply chain, supporting the aims of the Aerospace Growth Partnership to maintain the UK’s global position in the aerospace market.

Mr Jones added: “The global aerospace market is one that is constantly evolving, and is one that this Government is fully behind.

“I would encourage businesses to take advantage of this new opportunity to get the additional support they need to help the UK to maintain its world leading position in this very important sector.”