ONE of Britain’s leading engineering groups, GKN, is vying with an American rival to buy part of Airbus’s high-tech wing complex at Filton, near Bristol.

Airbus, which put the facility up for sale earlier this year, has narrowed the list of bidders for the site to just two – GKN and America’s Spirit Aerosystems.

A winner is expected to be chosen at a board meeting of EADS, the Airbus parent company, within the next fortnight. The sale – part of a wider Airbus cost-cutting plan dubbed “Power 8” – is being closely watched by ministers.

Britain no longer has any direct ownership of Airbus, and the government is fearful of job losses – and the loss of high-technology manufacturing – if its operations are sent overseas by new owners.

“They are extremely sensitive to what is going on at Airbus, and aware that they lack a degree of control over the future of the UK operations,” said one senior industry source. Airbus directly employs about 13,000 in the UK. Its main operations are at Broughton, in north Wales, and at Filton.

Airbus UK makes all the company’s wings, including the giant spans used on the new A380 superjumbo. Wing manufacturing is concentrated at Broughton, North Wales, with design and fabrication of parts at Filton.

GKN is widely believed to be the frontrunner in the auction. It is already a specialist in the use of composite materials in aerospace, which is one of the key future areas for the Filton site. Spirit, a fast-growing aerospace business that can trace its roots back to Stearman Aircraft, one of the American pioneers in aircraft making, has already done similar deals in America with Boeing, taking over plants in Wichita and Tulsa.

Its biggest UK operation is at Prestwick, Scotland, where it bought the BAE Systems aero-structures business last year.

John Fall, general secretary of the Confederation of Ship Building and Engineering Unions, said aerospace unions had been in constructive dialogue with GKN over its plans for Filton. “But we have not had any approach from Spirit,” he said.

“The criteria for this sale is simple – the winner should be the company that best serves the long-term interests of UK plc.”

Aerospace analysts said that Airbus might retain a stake in the Filton operation.

It is seeking “strategic investors” for several of its European plants as part of a cost-cutting plan first announced last year.

Further cost cuts cannot be ruled out. Airbus chief executive Tom Enders recently warned of the severe danger posed to the company by the weakening US dollar. Airbus is expected this week to land another bumper order from an Asian airline.

Air Asia, a fast-growing low-cost airline based in Malaysia, is tipped to announce an order for 25 Airbus A320s, with options on another 25.

This deal will take Air Asia’s order book to 175 A320s and 50 options, making it the largest customer for the aircraft type in the world.

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