Airbus to establish manufacturing facility in United States for aircraft assembly

BLAGNAC, France, 03 July 2012. Airbus has announced their intention to establish a manufacturing facility in the United States for the assembly and delivery of A320 family aircraft. Located at the Brookley Aeroplex in Mobile, Ala., it will be the company’s first U.S.-based production facility. The facility in Alabama will assemble the family of A319, A320 and A321 aircraft. The company said construction of the assembly line will begin in the summer of 2013. Aircraft assembly is expected to start in 2015, with first deliveries from the Mobile facility beginning in 2016. Airbus anticipates the facility will produce between 40 and 50 aircraft per year by 2018.

The U.S. is one of the largest single-aisle aircraft markets in the world, with Airbus predicting the U.S. will need 4,600 aircraft over the next 20 years. Mobile will become the newest part of the Airbus global production network, joining assembly lines in Hamburg, Toulouse and Tianjin.

The new facility is not the only presence Airbus has in Alabama. The company operates an Engineering Center in Mobile, also located at Brookley Aeroplex, as well as an Airbus Military customer services operation supporting U.S. Coast Guard aircraft.

The company said that the new Mobile assembly line, together with associated functions, should create as many as 1,000 new jobs.