A senior Airbus executive has urged Britain's government to provide clarity on post-Brexit customs rules as the planemaker faces an immediate rise in spending to start preparing for possible delays in the movement of parts.
Tom Williams, chief operating officer of the planemaking business of Europe's largest aerospace company, said Airbus is strongly committed to its British factories as long as they can be run with the same efficiency as before.
"We are coming to quite a momentous event. The important message we try to put across to ministers is we are only a year away now; the clock's running pretty fast," Williams said in a video conveyed to Airbus's 14,000 UK staff via YouTube.
Due to long lead times, Airbus is facing immediate decisions on whether to increase spending on parts in order to build up an extra buffer stock to cope with potential disruption when Britain leaves the European Union on March 29, 2019, he said.
