What does the Spirit AeroSystems deal mean for Belfast?

Boeing’s swoop on Spirit AeroSystems places a question mark over the future of one of Belfast’s most important employers, a high-tech manufacturing plant that governments have been eager to support financially in the knowledge that such good-quality jobs help to underpin the Northern Ireland peace process.

Spirit bought the factory, which employs about 3,600 staff and is ranked as Northern Ireland’s fourth largest employer, from Bombardier, the Canadian conglomerate, five years ago. The site has a rich aviation heritage. Before Bombardier took over in 1989, it was the home of Short Bros, the famed maker of flying boats and Stirling bomber used in the Second World War.

Twenty years ago Bombardier gave the Belfast factory a big boost by choosing it as one of the