More than 400,000 face masks bound for the NHS have arrived at Airbus Broughton

More than 400,000 surgical masks, donated by Airbus to the NHS, have been collected today from Airbus’ Broughton plant.

Airbus has established an ‘air-bridge’ to China using Airbus test aircraft to bring large quantities of surgical masks to Europe to support governments in the fight against COVID-19.

To date, several million face masks have been donated to national health authorities in Europe for distribution based on need.

The first UK consignment of face masks arrived at Broughton from Airbus’ HQ in Toulouse, France, this week.  More donations of masks are expected over the coming weeks.

Katherine Bennett CBE, SVP for Airbus in the UK, said: “In the last days Airbus has donated millions of face masks to hospitals and public services around Europe.

Today’s delivery of face masks to Airbus in Broughton will be handed over to the NHS to help the UK in its fight against COVID19.”

Secretary of  State Wales Simon Hart said: “I’d like to thank Airbus for their donation and for the significant impact they are making in getting emergency resources to the front line of the fight against coronavirus.

“We asked businesses to harness their capabilities and to work together with government during the pandemic, and it is inspirational to see one of the most iconic names in aviation meeting the challenge. Dealing with coronavirus is a collective national effort and Airbus’ donation will help support the NHS across the UK.”

VentilatorChallengeUK

Airbus has teamed up with a number of other manufacturing companies to create a consortium which to help in the country’s fight against COVID-19 by manufacturing more than 10,000 new ventilator units for the NHS.

The consortium is working in partnership with the Welsh Government to create a production facility for ventilators at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre on Chester Road in Broughton.

The production line will be up and running before the Easter weekend.

Due to the urgent need for ventilators, production will take place round the clock with more than 500 employees working shifts – 125 per shift – to ensure they can manufacture, test and distribute units to the front line as quickly as possible.

The VentilatorChallengeUK consortium includes AMRC Cymru anchor tenant Airbus, along with BAE systems, Rolls Royce, GKN Aerospace and Siemens UK among others, who have taken many of their best people from key projects and dedicated significant resources to serve the national need.

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