Spirit’s wider global business is being carved up between Boeing and Airbus, the world’s largest aircraft manufacturers.
Spirt was founded in 2005 when part of Boeing’s business was spun off as a separate company.
Monday’s deal was initiated by Boeing which wants to bring Spirit back in house as part of its efforts to tackle manufacturing problems.
Boeing is paying $4.3bn (£3.3bn) for its part of the deal whereas Spirit will pay Airbus $559m (£440.6m) reflecting the fact that the parts of the business Airbus is taking over are currently loss making.
Aside from the Belfast operations, Airbus will take control of two Spirit factories in the US, one in France and one in Morocco.
The Spirit operation at Prestwick in Scotland is not part of the deal and will also be sold separately.
Airbus said the deal “aims to ensure stability of supply” for its commercial aircraft programmes, both operationally and financially.
