15 December 2025
Leonardo AW149 helicopter, which will bring work to Yeovil if MoD places orders. Photo Airwolfhound via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).
Thousands of workers at the Italian-owned aerospace and defence company Leonardo, which runs Britain’s only helicopter factory in Yeovil have won a pay increase worth 8 per cent over two years.
They rejected the initial offer of a 3.2 per cent pay rise and walked out for two days in November at company sites in Yeovil, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Basildon and Luton. The planned further action was called off following the improved offer.
Positive
Unite national aerospace officer Rhys McCarthy described this as a positive result for workers in aerospace and a warning to other employers in the sector. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said, “…workers at Leonardo should be proud of the increased pay award they have secured…Our members do vital work in helping keep the UK safe and thoroughly deserve their win.”
‘Closure would mark the end of helicopter manufacture in Britain.’
The future for the workforce of over 3,000 is not secure. Leonardo CEO Roberto Cingolani has threatened to close the Yeovil factory if the government fails to award a new contract to the company.
The factory’s closure would mark the end of aircraft manufacturing at the site, founded as the Westland Aircraft Works in 1915, and the end of helicopter manufacture in Britain.
Delays
Leonardo proposed its AW149 model for the New Medium Helicopter required by the Ministry of Defence. After long delays by the government in deciding the contract, defence minister Luke Pollard claimed on 25 November that “a decision [will] be made shortly as part of the upcoming Defence Investment Plan.”
The company is becoming impatient. On 5 November Cingolani said, “I think we can be positive but we have to see what happens in the end. These tenders are very complicated [and] there is lots of political influence behind them…should this not happen we should seriously consider why we keep a plant there for 15 years not getting anything.”
Leonardo is partially owned by the Italian government which holds a 30 per cent stake and is the largest shareholder.