Airbus announced a milestone on Monday as the company celebrated their fifth anniversary of single-aisle aircraft production in Mobile, Alabama in the U.S. The company started A320 Family aircraft production in Alabama in 2015 with a workforce of around 250.
Today (September 14, 2020) Airbus announced a production milestone as the company celebrated their fifth anniversary of single-aisle aircraft production at their Mobile, Alabama (U.S.) facility. The aerospace giant began A320 Family production in Alabama in 2015 with a staff of 250, which has now grown to 1,000 employees building both A220 and A320 Family aircraft. Since 2015, the Alabama facility has delivered over 180 A320 Family aircraft to eight customers, which have since carried 60 million passengers around 500 million miles. The opening of the Alabama facility marked Airbus’ position as a truly global as well as American manufacturer with an expansion of their existing production network in Europe and Asia. In Monday’s announcement, Airbus Americas’ President and CEO, C. Jeffrey Knittel, said,
“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 out intent to be a good neighbor, 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 and aerospace hub on the Gulf Coast. 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 company’s expansion in Mobile achieved a major milestone in 2017 when the decision was made to open a second A220 production line to complement Airbus’ primary Mirabel, Canada A220 plant. Airbus built a second assembly line in Mobile adjacent to the existing A320 plant, and currently, the first U.S. built A220 is in its final production stages for delivery to Delta Air Lines. The Mobile production site originally sat on 116 acres which has now been expanded by 70 acres to include two new final phase/flight-line hangars (four bays), an enlarged deliver center (with four new aircraft parking spaces), a ‘pre-transshipment’ hangar and the new final assembly line (FAL) building.
The new delivery center will be named after former Airbus CEO, Tom Enders, who championed the opening of a new U.S. factory. When the Alabama facility expansion is complete, Airbus will have invested nearly US$1 billion and doubled their footprint in only five years, contributing an estimated economic impact of US$1.2 billion, and supporting over 15,000 jobs through construction and payroll.
Source: Airbus