Airbus is closing in on a deal to secure 6,000 jobs at its Filton factory near Bristol as two bidders for the site emerge.

GKN and Spirit Aerosystems are understood to be in advanced talks with Airbus about taking over the wing- component facility.

Filton, which was the home of Concorde, has been identified by Airbus as one of three locations in Europe that could be outsourced to a third-party supplier.

Final negotiations with GKN and Spirit on the structure of the sale are expected to begin in mid-June.

Finmeccanica, the Italian owner of AgustaWestland, the helicopter manufacturer, is believed to have dropped out of the bidding.

Airbus announced this year that it plans to save ¤200 billion, and its management is attempting to streamline operations.

The 55,000-strong workforce will be cut by 3,700 jobs in Germany, 3,200 in France, 1,600 in Britain, 400 in Spain and by 1,100 at the headquarters in Toulouse.

Three factories will be sold or closed and another three, including Filton, are to be outsourced.

Airbus is hoping to reduce the amount of work it does in-house to cut costs. The company gets only a quarter of its components from third parties, compared with 80 per cent for its competitor Boeing.

Thousands of Airbus workers have taken industrial action during the past two months to protest against the restructuring plans, called Power 8.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the new president of France, will meet Airbus union leaders today to discuss the company’s restructuring proposals.

British unions hope that the plans for Filton could turn into an opportunity for the Bristol facility. They point to the success of one of the potential buyers, Spirit Aerosystems. The company, based in Wichita, Kansas, was spun out of Boeing in 2003 and is now regarded by analysts as the world’s leading manufacturer of aircraft parts.

Spirit makes the front fuselage and cockpit sections of Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner, and is also gaining orders from other companies. Last week it won a $150 million order from Sikorsky, the helicopter group, to build fuselage sections.

Spirit is also understood to be talking to Airbus in Toulouse about taking a role in the European manufacturer’s next aircraft, the $12 billion A350XWB.

GKN, the British industrial company and former owner of Westland helicopters, is the world’s largest supplier of carbon-fibre aircraft parts and is involved in the manufacture of fighter jets such as the F18 and F35. GKN is also supplying parts for the Boeing 787 and is working with Airbus on the A380 superjumbo project.

The negotiations between Airbus and its potential Filton partners are thought to be focusing on guaranteeing work for the A350.

A spokesman for Airbus said: “Since Power 8 was announced in February we have been in dialogue with a number of parties regarding Filton, but beyond that we cannot comment.”

Neither GKN nor Spirit was immediately available to comment on the deal.

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