The UK arm of aircraft maker Airbus, the UK's largest civil aerospace company, with wing and aircraft work at Filton, Broughton and Belfast and apprentice and degree-apprentice routes.
Airbus is one of the world's biggest aircraft makers, and in the UK it designs and builds wings and other major aircraft parts. Airbus describes itself as the UK's largest civil aerospace company and its foremost exporter in aeronautics. UK teams work on wings, fuel systems and landing gear for commercial aircraft, on defence aircraft such as the A400M airlifter and A330 tanker, on helicopters, and on satellites and space missions. Wings and parts built here travel to final assembly lines in France, Germany, the USA, Canada and China.
Airbus's UK pages do not set out a formal mission statement. They keep returning to a few priorities: innovation and decarbonisation (cutting the carbon from flying), support for the UK's defence capability, sustainable growth, and support for veterans and reservists. Its research includes the Wing of Tomorrow and ZEROe hydrogen aircraft programmes. A UK apprenticeship listing also asks applicants to show they share Airbus's values and a commitment to integrity and compliance.
Airbus says it has more than 14,000 direct jobs in the UK and works from more than 29 locations, from Aberdeen to Portsmouth. Filton, near Bristol, leads wing design and fuel and landing gear systems and is described by Airbus as home to Northern Europe's largest concentration of aerospace engineers. Broughton in North Wales is the wing manufacturing centre of excellence. Airbus Belfast was created when Airbus completed its purchase of selected Spirit AeroSystems assets in December 2025, and it builds A220 wings and mid-fuselage sections with roughly 1,550 to 1,600 employees transferring. Airbus Helicopters is headquartered at Oxford Airport, and there are also sites at Prestwick, Newport and Farnborough.
A listing for the 2027 apprenticeship says employees can join networks including Early Careers, Generation Airbus, Pride@Airbus, Balance for Business, Breathe and embRACE, and that apprentices get a dedicated placement manager and an apprentice buddy. These are Airbus's own descriptions. We did not find independent culture reviews, so ask current apprentices what day-to-day life is like.
Airbus says it has more than 1,300 early-career employees in the UK, with hundreds of apprenticeships across its commercial aircraft business and a Future Engineers Programme being launched in North Wales. One example is the Procurement and Supply Chain Degree Apprenticeship for 2027, based at Filton. It lasts 4 years and 3 months, leads to a BSc from Aston University, pays £23,245 for a 35-hour week with half-day Fridays, and asked for three A levels (two Bs and a C) plus GCSE maths and English at grade 4. It closes on 26 October 2026. An older 2016 news item described craft (aircraft fitter), undergraduate and higher apprenticeships at Broughton and Filton, so check Airbus's careers site for what is open now.
Website: www.airbus.com/en/instrumental-uk
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