EADS expects to complete the sale of a large part of its Airbus site at Filton in the UK “in the next few weeks” to GKN in spite of its failure to reach deals for other important Airbus sites in France and Germany.

GKN, the UK automotive and aerospace supplier, is aiming to take 100 per cent control of the Airbus UK wing component and sub-assembly manufacturing site at Filton, near Bristol.