The Broughton site spans a vast area of 122,000 square metres and consists of high-tech manufacturing facilities for build-up of all Airbus wings prior to their delivery to the final assembly lines in Toulouse, France, Hamburg or Bremen in Germany, and Seville in Spain.

The factory also manufactures and assembles wings and fuselages for the Hawker executive jet.

Broughton has invested over £1 billion in new machinery, facilities, technologies and training for employees since the mid 1990s. The majority of these investments has been made in new wing production lines for the long-range A340-500/600 aircraft and in building a state-of-the-art facility for assembly of A380 wings.

The main site at Broughton consists of a number of wing manufacturing facilities. Each centre is responsible for an important stage in the making of a wing, which begins with the creation of the largest individual section – the skin panel – and continues until a fully assembled pair of wings is ready to be flown to Airbus final assembly lines on the European continent.

Broughton’s newest factory was opened in 2003 for the assembly of A380 wings, and it also handles other manufacturing activities. This ultra-modern site is the result of a £350 million investment, and represents a major step in Airbus UK’s capabilities. It is one of the largest factories to be built in the UK in recent years (83,590 square metres) with a floor area equivalent to 12 football pitches.

The A380 wing assembly building generates its own power through combined energy and heat units, and has 32 miles of sprinkler systems, as well as walkways designed into the roof structure to allow easy replacement of lights and access to the cranes for maintenance.

Also included at Broughton is a production site for the Hawker (originally called the HS125), which was the first aircraft specifically designed as an executive jet. The Hawker has not only outsold all other British-designed civil jets, but has also been in production longer than any other jet transport in the world. Market demand for the aircraft remains at high levels, and Airbus has a lifetime contract with the current marketing and sales organisation of Hawker jets – which is based in the United States – to manufacture the fuselage and wings.

…the A380 wing assembly building: This state-of-the art factory was built with 75,000 cubic metres of concrete and 12,000 tons of steelwork. Construction began in 2001, the facility was officially opened on 4 July 2003.