Eastern NC aircraft factory gets a new owner and a new, European name
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Airbus acquired the Kinston fuselage plant after Boeing bought Spirit AeroSystems.
- Airbus Aerosystems Kinston will produce A350 fuselages and wing spars.
- Kinston workforce of about 1,000 joins Airbus, expanding its U.S. footprint.
Spirit AeroSystems has made fuselages and other aircraft components for Airbus in the Eastern North Carolina city of Kinston for more than a decade.
That changed Monday, when Spirit officially became part of Boeing, the biggest rival to Airbus in the global passenger aircraft market. As part of Boeing’s deal to acquire Spirit, the companies split off factories that make parts for Airbus.
So also on Monday, the sprawling Kinston plant became Airbus Aerosystems Kinston Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Airbus Americas. The European aerospace company, based in France, will continue to make fuselages and wing spars in Kinston for the Airbus A350, the wide-body, long-haul jet that competes with the Boeing 777 and 787 Dreamliner.
Company leaders and employees marked the transition in Kinston on Monday.
“We are proud to welcome our newest 1,000 employees to the Airbus family as we integrate the Kinston site into our growing U.S. footprint,” Robin Hayes, chairman and CEO of Airbus in North America, said in a written statement. “The aerostructures work being done in Kinston is vital to Airbus’ global industrial ramp-up, making the site a pace setter for the A350 program.”
Spirit AeroSystems opened the 500,000-square-foot factory in 2010. It was the first major tenant at the Global TransPark, the state-owned business park that surrounds Kinston’s airport.
The 2,500-acre park was created by the General Assembly in the early 1990s as a place where companies could set up manufacturing plants around a runway, shuttling components in and completed products out. A decade later, the park was struggling to attract companies, and the state offered Spirit $180 million in incentives, including a $100 million grant from the Golden LEAF Foundation to build the plant.
Spirit, based in Wichita, Kansas, was spun off from Boeing as a standalone company 20 years ago. It diversified by becoming a supplier for other aircraft makers. Cost and quality issues at Spirit prompted Boeing to reacquire the company in a deal worth $4.7 billion.
Airbus, meanwhile, signed a deal in April to acquire Spirit plants that support its planes. The addition of the Kinston plant means Airbus employs nearly 7,000 people in the U.S., in 14 states and the District of Columbia.
This story was originally published December 9, 2025 at 3:15 PM.
