Airbus Breaks Ground on Belfast Expansion to Boost A220 Production to 13 Jets a Month

Airbus has started work on a 67,000-square-foot extension at Belfast, the only plant in the world that builds A220 wings, in a push toward 13 of the jets a month by 2028.

Airbus said Wednesday that construction has started on a 67,000-square-foot extension of its Belfast wing plant, the sole source of A220 wings, to support a target of 13 jets a month by 2028.

The extension covers 6,221 square meters and is scheduled for completion in the first half of 2028, the company said. It will house a third autoclave along with specialized wing tooling and overhead crane capacity, which Airbus calls cranage, and forms part of a wider multi-million-pound investment plan at the site. Airbus has not disclosed a pound or dollar figure for the spending.

“Enhancing our wing facilities is a direct investment in the future of A220 wing production here in Belfast, building the capacity required to meet the growing demand for this aircraft,” said Anthony Rouse, head of Airbus Belfast plant and site.

Why Belfast Decides A220 Production Rates

The construction now under way in Belfast is the industrial answer to a number Airbus has been chasing, and revising, for the past year.

Airbus delivered 93 A220s in 2025, an average of 7.75 a month, and 44 in the first half of 2026. A rate of 13 a month annualizes to 156 aircraft, roughly 68% above the 2025 total.

There is no second supplier to lean on. In its announcement, Airbus said: “As the exclusive global manufacturer of A220 wings, Belfast is central to the A220 Programme.” Wings built in Northern Ireland feed both final assembly lines — Mirabel, Quebec, and Mobile, Alabama, where a dedicated A220 line opened in 2020. Belfast also produces the A220 mid-fuselage, according to the company’s December 2025 acquisition announcement, though the wing-extension release does not mention that work.

The rate target itself has moved. Airbus cut its 2026 goal from 14 aircraft a month to 12 in October 2025, then set the 13-a-month marker for 2028 with its full-year 2025 results in February. In its half-year results on July 29, the company said: “The A220 ramp-up is ongoing and the Company continues to target a monthly production rate of 13 aircraft in 2028.”

Reaching that rate is a financial matter, not only an industrial one. Reuters reported on July 15 that Airbus is trying to ramp up A220 production, which the company says is necessary for the money-losing program to break even. Guillaume Chevasson, chief executive of Airbus Canada Limited Partnership and head of the A220 program, told FlightGlobal in July that at least 13 a month is crucial to profitability.

“We want to continue to ramp up. We want to reach profitability, which is the cornerstone of the programme. It is my priority – there can only be a future for the programme if it is profitable,” Chevasson said.

Inside the Extension

The new bay’s centerpiece is the third autoclave. Airbus, in notes to editors, describes an autoclave as an industrial pressure vessel that applies extreme heat and pressure to cure raw carbon-fiber layers into a single, ultra-strong and lightweight composite structure.

Belfast pioneered the patented Resin Transfer Infusion process used to build the A220’s composite wings. “This technology makes the structure approximately 10% lighter than traditional aluminium equivalents, directly reducing fuel burn and carbon emissions,” Airbus said.

Separate site-modernization work includes a new security gate entrance, high-voltage electrical substations, a new office block, an expanded 650-space parking lot and new IT systems. Forty new apprentices are due to start in September.

“This commitment is also reflected in our ongoing skills development, including bringing onboard 40 new apprentices who will start in September this year. It’s an exciting time for aviation in Northern Ireland and for the next generation of aerospace talent,” Rouse said.

A company photograph of the ground-cutting was captioned by The Irish News, which named Charlotte O’Kane, head of A220 programme management and Airbus Belfast, and Joanne Millar, head of A220 wing operations, alongside apprentices Harrison Dalton and Ethan Kane.

The Irish News also reported that the project will lead to the recruitment of new staff, but published no headcount, and Airbus announced none. The site’s existing workforce is larger. When the Spirit AeroSystems deal closed, Jérôme Blandin, head of wing operations for Airbus commercial aircraft, said: “In Belfast, Airbus welcomes around 1,600 employees, delivering crucial work packages in A220 composite wing and mid-fuselage which are critical to Airbus’ production ramp-up.”

As of Aug. 20, no public comment on the groundbreaking had been issued by trade unions, the Northern Ireland Executive, the U.K. government, Boeing, Spirit AeroSystems, Pratt & Whitney or A220 airline customers.

From Short Brothers to Airbus Belfast

The plant Airbus is now enlarging spent most of a decade in other hands. Bombardier bought Short Brothers in 1989, developed the aircraft as the CSeries and assigned the composite wing to Belfast. The purpose-built, 600,000-square-foot wing facility opened Oct. 11, 2013, less than a month after the CSeries first flight.

“And today also sees the largest ever single investment in Northern Ireland, with Bombardier investing £520 million right here in Belfast to design, manufacture and assemble the advanced composite wings for its new CSeries commercial aircraft,” then-U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said at the Northern Ireland Investment Conference that day.

Airbus took control of the program in 2018 and renamed the CS100 and CS300 as the A220-100 and A220-300, but did not initially acquire Belfast. Spirit AeroSystems bought Bombardier’s aerostructures business in 2020 and took the wing work package. Boeing’s 2024 agreement to reacquire Spirit forced a carve-up, and Airbus closed on the Spirit sites on Dec. 8, 2025, receiving $439 million in compensation, subject to customary purchase-price adjustments and post-closing review. Less than nine months later, the company is expanding a plant that had been a supply strain under Spirit — in October 2024, Reuters reported, citing industry sources, that Airbus had airlifted A220 wing parts from Belfast to Montreal on Antonov An-124 flights; Spirit confirmed flights it linked to rising A220 output.

Demand has not been the constraint. Through the end of July, the A220 had drawn 1,106 net orders against 532 deliveries, leaving 574 aircraft still to build. Malaysian low-cost carrier AirAsia’s firm order for 150 A220-300s on May 6 was the largest single firm order for the type and pushed the program past 1,000 firm orders.