Airbus, the troubled European aircraft manufacturer, will announce its restructuring plans today amid political posturing and industrial action.

Trade unions said yesterday that job losses and factory closures could spark Europe-wide strikes.

Workers at one Airbus plant outside Paris spontaneously downed tools and walked out yesterday at the threat that their facility could close.

Airbus is hoping to save €2 billion (£1.4 billion) a year through a series of cuts after delays to its A380 superjumbo cost the company billions in lost earnings.

The Power 8 restructuring plan is expected to see about 3,500 jobs go in Germany and 4,000 in France. Up to 1,000 of the UK’s 13,000 workforce could also go but most of these are likely to be contractors or those accepting early retirement.

Power 8 is also expected to involve the sale, or partial sale, of Airbus factories, which would allow the company to outsource risk and costs to suppliers.

A number of factories in France are thought to be candidates for outsourcing as well as Filton, near Bristol.

Bernie Hamilton, a spokesman for the Amicus union in the UK, said: “The things we want to hear from today’s announcement are that the UK is confirmed as a centre for wing design and engineering.”

The scale of job cuts and factory closures sparked a political battle last week when German shareholders refused to back initial Power 8 proposals because they did not give the country sufficient work on Airbus’s new aircraft, the A350.

This was widely seen as a ploy to win more concessions from the French half of Airbus.

A deal has now been hammered out that will give Germany more A320 work while France will dominate the A350.

Sources close to the German side of Airbus said this reallocation of work could lead to the eventual divorce of the German and French parts of the company.

Meanwhile, EADS, Airbus’s parent company, is seeking new sources of finance. It needs to find about €10 billion to launch the A350 and with a weak balance sheet it is looking to outside investors.

Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani, Qatar’s Foreign Minister, will visit France this week to talk about the Qataris buying up to 10 per cent of EADS’s stock.

In return for access to Qatari finance, Airbus may be expected to locate some of its production facilities in the Arab country.

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