20 September 2020: Airbus recently celebrated the five year anniversary of its US based commercial aircraft manufacturing facility in Mobile, Alabama. In the last five years, this facility have delivered over 180 A320 aircraft to eight customers and flown over 60 million passengers for 500 million miles. The facility has grown from an initial workforce of 250 staff in 2015 to about a 1000 staff in just 5 years. This facility truly cemented Airbus’ position as a global aircraft company.
“When we announced our intent to build A320 Family aircraft in the United States, and to locate that facility in Mobile, Alabama, we also stated our intent to be a good neighbour, to create jobs and opportunities, and to help strengthen the US aerospace industry. Five years later, we have become a major economic driver in creating an aerospace hub on the Gulf Coast,” said C. Jeffrey Knittel, President and CEO of Airbus Americas
In 2017, Airbus introduced the A220 programme to the site adjacent to the original A320 plant. Currently the first US build A220 is already in its final stages of manufacture for the Delta Airlines. The new plant added an additional 70 acres to the original 116 acre facility.
Knittel added, “The achievements of the Airbus US manufacturing team over these past five years are just the beginning. We are proud to call Mobile our American aircraft manufacturing home and we look forward to many more years of partnership with the community, our customers and suppliers.”
The new plant includes two new final phase/flight-line hangars (four bays); an enlarged delivery centre with four new aircraft parking spaces; a ‘pre-transshipment’ hangar and of course the new ‘flow-line’ final assembly line (FAL) building itself. Once complete, Airbus investment in the project is nearly USD 1 billion doubling it US footprint in five years.
