ONE of the biggest customers for new Airbus airliners has been thrown a lifeline in the form of another cash injection.
International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) leases its 955 commercial jets – one of the world's largest fleets – to airlines and is a division of insurance giant American International Group (AIG).
Like many of AIG's business units, ILFC has been put up for sale as the group struggles to pay back the £127bn it has been loaned by the US government to keep it afloat.
California-based ILFC is among the largest customers of both Airbus and its rival Boeing, with 49 planes worth £2.1bn set for delivery this year alone. It has 168 new planes, worth £11.7bn, planned for delivery over the next 10 years.
The size of the order book underlines the importance of ILFC to Airbus – and by implication to Broughton, near Chester, where the wings for the jets are made. Airbus is already cutting 250 agency jobs at Broughton because of a slump in demand in America for the Hawker business jet which it works on for US firm Hawker Beechcraft, and can ill afford to see a slump in orders for its own airliners.
Broughton needs orders to hold up reasonably well this year, or at least not to suffer major cancellations, if it is to ensure job security for the bulk of its 6,500-strong workforce.
