The Ministry of Defence has agreed a £410 million maintenance contract for the UK’s Atlas A400M aircraft, securing a key part of the RAF airlift fleet until 2026. The contract will sustain around 200 UK jobs with Airbus Defence and Space, focused around RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. An additional 200 jobs will be sustained at GKN, Messier Dowty, Rolls-Royce and Thales.
The contract with Airbus will pay for maintenance, upgrade and repair of the UK’s entire fleet of Atlas transport planes into the next decade. The new deal draws on a separate two-year Global Support Contract worth £63 million that has also just been agreed with France and Spain, which will provide common support and spares services, and is the first step towards a 6-Nation Global Support arrangement.
The RAF has 14 Atlas aircraft in service, with the planned fleet of 22 scheduled to enter service by 2019.
_________________
Global aero-engine parts supplier, ANT Industries has signed a £25m, five-year contract to supply engine components to support six new civil engine programmes for a global Spanish aerospace manufacturer.
The six programmes include providing parts for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s Trent 1000 engine, while another is for a PW815 engine for 100-seater aircraft, according to ANT Industries – which is based In Atherstone and makes 36,000 parts a year.
Managing director of ANT Industries, Shaun Rowley explained: “This is a significant deal for our business and will secure jobs in both our business and our supply chain.”