‘I have achieved more than I ever thought I would.’ Brian Fleet talks to David Jones about life at Airbus

THE man who helped mastermind the rise and rise of Deeside as the world’s top site for the manufacture of airliner wings is to step down.

Brian Fleet said that, after almost a decade as the boss at Airbus’s wing-making plant at Broughton, near Chester, the time was right for him to “pass the baton” for the development of the next generation of the company’s aircraft to someone else.

“I am now in my 36th year in the business, and I have achieved more than I ever thought I would,” he said.

“I have been involved with many fantastic programmes, including the A380 and now the A350. I want to give my successor time to get his feet under the table before the development of the 30X – the replacement for the single aisle A320 family.

“It is important to have continuity – and I have been at the helm of this business for 10 years.”

Mr Fleet, who will be 54 when he retires at the end of March next year, rose from engineering apprentice with the then Hawker Siddeley factory, in Flintshire, in 1974, to head one of Deeside’s biggest employers.

He is Airbus’s UK senior vice-president and head of Centre of Excellence for Wing & Pylon. As such, he has had responsibility for four Airbus sites – two of them in the UK and one each in France and Germany. He is based at Broughton, where the wing production for all variants of Airbus commercial airliners takes place.

He said: “I'm very proud of the time I've spent at Airbus and everything we as a company and team have achieved in Broughton, Filton, Bremen and St Eloi.

“I've been a part of the wing production for every aircraft in the Airbus family, from the A300 to the A380, which is a rare honour.

“I never would have believed when I was a young engineering apprentice that I would one day have the opportunity to lead this site. We have a great workforce, a great team and a great team spirit, and together we make a wonderful product.”

Mr Fleet, who lives in Bebington, Wirral, said the enormous mileage he had chalked up flying between the sites over past years had meant he was often away from home. He said that one of the reasons he had decided to step down now was so that he could spend more time with his wife, Debbie. The couple have three grown-up children.

Airbus has had to surmount numerous difficulties in recent years – delays to the superjumbo programme and a drop in orders caused by the global recession among them.

Mr Fleet admitted that there had been “challenges” along the way, but the company had always found ways to meet those challenges and would do so again.

But, asked whether he had found the job of leading the aerospace centre stressful in today’s demanding business climate, he replied: “Not really, I have been in senior management positions for 27 years – more than half of my life.

“It has not been stressful, but there have been challenges.”

Airbus, the civilian aircraft division of parent company EADS, has attracted millions of pounds in launch aid from the UK, French, German and Spanish governments for the development of new aircraft over recent years.

The latest project, the A350, has secured £340m in launch aid from the UK Government, an investment that has helped clinch the work on the new airliner’s wing for Broughton, safeguarding more than 1,000 jobs there.

But state aid for the aircraft development programmes – typically a third of the multi-billion pound cost of each huge project – has been mired in controversy, adding a further headache for Airbus bosses.

The US has gone to the Geneva-based World Trade Organisation to challenge the state aid given to the Airbus projects and an interim ruling, yet to be made public and confirmed, was issued a few weeks ago.

Whatever the outcome of the WTO cases – Europe has lodged its own complaint against alleged illegal subsidies paid to Airbus’s US arch- rival, Boeing – the A350 wings will go into production at Broughton next year. The new North factory, site of their manufacture, is now being built.

Mr Fleet told LDP Business: “I think the support of the Government for this type of initiative is essential, both now and going forward.”

A new generation of apprentices is being trained at the Deeside site to work on the new materials and technologies needed to build the A350 wings.

He began his near four-decade career, and 30 years in Broughton, as an engineering apprentice in 1974 when the site was part of British Aerospace, later BAE Systems, until the creation of the Airbus single-integrated company in 2001.

He began taking increasingly senior roles within the business, and in 1995 he moved from the Airbus division management team in British Aerospace to take up a key role in another branch of the company, becoming director of the Royal Ordnance small arms ammunition business, based at Radway Green, in Crewe, Cheshire.

In 1998, he was appointed managing director of Heckler and Koch, in Germany. He subsequently returned to Airbus in Broughton and his roots in the commercial aerospace sector.

He has described his return as the top man at Broughton as one of the happiest days of his life, and today he adds: “It was a huge sense of fulfilment because my heart was here.”

Gerard Weber, Airbus executive vice-president, operations, said: “Up until March, Brian will continue to lead the Centre of Excellence Wing and Pylon, and to display the same commitment and vigour as he has done for many years.”

Workers at the Broughton factory were quick to pay tribute to the man whose commitment to the site, they said, had never been in doubt.

Terry Dillon, union convenor, said: “His heart is in Broughton and we will be sorry to see him go because he has been a bloody good salesman for this site.

“Whoever takes over from him has a very hard act to follow, but we hope the person who steps into his shoes will show the same commitment to the site that he has over the years.”

Mr Dillon said Mr Fleet had never missed an opportunity to bend the ear of Government ministers and other VIP visitors to Broughton, extolling the plant’s record of excellence as a world-leading centre of aerospace expertise.

“His efforts have had a lot to do with the growth of the site in recent years and he will be sorely missed.”

Mr Fleet’s replacement is expected to be named some time over the coming months.

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