According to reports this morning on Cadena Ser radio, workers at Airbus's three Spanish plants have been told to stop manufacturing components for the new A380, the biggest passenger plane ever built.

The decision affects 2,000 workers in Getafe, 500 in Puerto Real and a further 500 in Illescas, and follows demonstrations recently in France, Germany and Spain after the company announced that six European factories, employing 10,000 people, would have to be sold to recoup heavy losses sustained by a string of missed deadlines on the 'Superjumbo' project.