MOBILE, Ala., 2 July 2012. Airbus executives announced plans to establish the company’s first aircraft production facility in the United States. The new U.S. manufacturing facility will be located at the Brookley Aeroplex in Mobile, Ala.; will focus on the assembly and delivery of the company’s A320 family of passenger aircraft; and is intended to create jobs, strengthen the aerospace industry, and enhance Airbus' global competitiveness and ability to meet the growing needs of North American customers.
Alabama-based staff will assemble the Airbus A319, A320, and A321 aircraft beginning as early as 2015, with deliveries starting in 2016. Construction of the assembly line will begin next summer and is expected to achieve an annual production rate of 40 to 50 aircraft by 2018. The cost to establish the assembly line is estimated at $600 million.
"The time is right for Airbus to expand in America," says Airbus President and CEO Fabrice Bregier. "The U.S. is the largest single-aisle aircraft market in the world--with a projected need for 4,600 aircraft over the next 20 years--and this assembly line brings us closer to our customers. Mobile is now becoming part of Airbus' global production network, joining our successful and growing assembly lines in Hamburg, Toulouse, and Tianjin."
"This decision is great news for our industry partnerships in the U.S., and it supports Airbus' strategy on several fronts," Bregier adds. "This facility creates new manufacturing jobs and further enhances the partnership between Airbus, its suppliers, and their employees--a very large percentage of which are located here in the United States.”
"Mobile has long been a hub for world class shipbuilding and it will now become a critical node for the U.S. aerospace industry as well,” says U.S. Senator Richard Shelby. “The effects of this decision will reverberate far beyond Alabama, however, as the entire country will benefit from having both global commercial aircraft manufacturers building planes on U.S. soil."
