The trade and industry secretary has said Britain has had the best of a bad deal in Airbus's restructuring.
The multinational European firm announced 1,600 job losses over four years among UK employees on Wednesday as part of a package of cost-cutting measures.
The plane-maker said 10,000 jobs will be cut across its 16 European sites, with those in France and Germany being hardest hit.
In the UK the losses will mainly fall at its Broughton plant in North Wales and at Filton, near Bristol.
However half of the 1,600 lay-offs are expected to be among contract staff rather than directly employed workers while the Filton site would adapt to become a "centre of excellence" in wing production.
Alistair Darling said he was saddened by the news but that the highly skilled workforces at the two British plants would bounce back.
"While the job losses here - and in even greater number in France and Germany - are to be regretted, the long-term future for Airbus in the UK is a good one," he said.
"We have fought our corner hard to ensure the most modern, future technology of wing design, manufacture and assembly will be in this country.
"That is vital. The skills and productivity of the workforce at Filton and Broughton have made a powerful case.
"Their reward is that the UK will now become a truly transnational centre of excellence for wing and propulsion systems.
"The UK now has the chance to develop future manufacturing technology and gain high-value work for future planes well into the next decade."
