US aircraft manufacturer Boeing will end a 70-year history of building parts for some of the world’s most famous jetliners in NSW after closing a plant in south-west Sydney with the loss of about 350 jobs.

Boeing announced today that it will close the manufacturing plant near Bankstown Airport over the next 24 to 30 months, shifting the work to its facility at Fishermans Bend in Melbourne.

Mark Ross, the managing director of Boeing Aerostructures Australia, said today that it made the decision to centralise operations because the two plants in NSW and Victoria were operating at less than 50 per cent capacity.

‘‘We simply could not carry the overheads associated with operating two under-utilised plants,’’ he said.

Boeing said about 300 new jobs at the Melbourne plant would be offered to the Sydney workers.