To help the ailing aeronautical industry of Spin, the government recently approved a €3.7 billion ($5.5 billion) aid package to help it through the economic downturn. Spain houses an arm of the European airplane maker Airbus. The aeronautical sector is strategic for Spain because it develops products with high added value and it creates high-skilled jobs, the Spanish industry ministry said in a statement. The aid, to be distributed between 2010 and 2014, will go toward the development of new products as also to help maintain demand of the products. Also the amount is to be used to aid the development of Airbus’ next passenger jet, the mid-sized A350, the ministry added. The consolidated turnover in the Spanish aeronautical sector in 2008 amounted to €5.1 billion, an increase of around 25 % over the previous year, according to government figures. The industry provides direct employment in Spain to more than 33,000 people, a figure that can be multiplied by four or five if indirect employment is considered. The government has stepped up its efforts to change the country’s growth model after the Spanish economy entered into its first recession in 15 years at the end of last year as the global credit crunch worsened a correction that was already underway in its key construction sector.