The Airbus U.S. Manufacturing Facility is an assembly site for

Airbus Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace manufacturer, aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft througho ...

's Commercial Airplanes division, located at the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley in

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 cens ...

, United States. The plant is a major assembly and delivery site for Airbus commercial aircraft in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and one of the largest employment centers in the state. The site is one of four final assembly and delivery points for the

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air F ...

family and one of two final assembly and delivery points for the

Airbus A220 The Airbus A220 is a family of five-abreast narrow-body airliners by Airbus Canada Limited Partnership. It was originally designed by Bombardier and had two years in service as the Bombardier CSeries. The program was launched on 13 July 2 ...

History

In 2008, Airbus' parent company, European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), was working with

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military techn ...

on a bid to supply aerial refueling tankers to the

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...

. In their bid to supply the

EADS/Northrop Grumman KC-45 The EADS/Northrop Grumman KC-45 was a proposed aerial refueling tanker aircraft based on the Airbus A330 MRTT. The United States Air Force (USAF) had ordered 179 KC-45As in the first stage of replacing the aging Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker tanke ...

, based on the

Airbus A330 MRTT The Airbus A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) is a European aerial refuelling and military transport aircraft based on the civilian Airbus A330. A total of 16 countries have placed firm orders for approximately 68 aircraft, of which 51 ha ...

, EADS planned to assemble the aircraft in

, after which they would have been modified at a neighboring facility by Northrop Grumman. EADS also announced plans to have its Airbus subsidiary shift

Airbus A330 The Airbus A330 is a wide-body aircraft developed and produced by Airbus. Airbus conceived several derivatives of the A300, its first airliner in the mid-1970s. Then the company began development on the A330 twinjet in parallel with the A340 ...

commercial freighter assembly to Alabama. Northrop Grumman and EADS planned to invest approximately US$600 million in new assembly plants in the United States adjacent to one another in the Brookley Complex in Mobile. EADS's failure to win the contract meant that the Alabama production line for the Airbus A330 was never set up. Beginning on 27 June 2012, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and other news outlets reported that Airbus had decided to locate a new factory in Mobile for the manufacture of the

Airbus A320 family The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first member of the famil ...

(A319, A320 and A321) of airliners. The initial reports were soon confirmed by Mobile's ''

Press-Register The ''Press-Register'' (known from 1997 to 2006 as the ''Mobile Register'') is a thrice-weekly newspaper serving the southwest Alabama counties of Mobile and Baldwin. The newspaper is a descendant of one founded in 1813, making the ''Press-Regi ...

'', which reported on 30 June 2012, that the deal had been approved by Airbus. The announced plans included a $600 million factory at the Brookley Aeroplex for the assembly of the aircraft, employing up to 1,000 full-time workers when at full capacity. Construction was scheduled to begin in 2013, with it becoming operable by 2015 and intending to produce 40 to 50 aircraft per year by 2017. The plan was formally announced by Airbus CEO

Fabrice Brégier Fabrice Brégier (born 16 July 1961) is a French business executive. He was appointed president and chief operating officer of Airbus on 1 January 2017. He is on the executive committee of Airbus, which operates Airbus Commercial Aircraft, Air ...

from the Mobile Convention Center on 2 July 2012. A ground breaking ceremony for the factory was held on 8 April 2013. On 14 September 2015, Airbus officially opened the Mobile assembly line.

Aircraft in production

Airbus A320

The Mobile plant is a final assembly line for the

of narrow body aircraft. Aircraft assembled in Mobile are destined for North American airlines such as

JetBlue JetBlue Airways Corporation (stylized as jetBlue) is a major American low cost airline, and the seventh largest airline in North America by passengers carried. The airline is headquartered in the Long Island City neighborhood of the New York C ...

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc., typically referred to as Delta, is one of the major airlines of the United States and a legacy carrier. One of the List of airlines by foundation date, world's oldest airlines in operation, Delta is headquartered in Atla ...

American Airlines American Airlines is a major airlines of the United States, major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the world when measured ...

Spirit Airlines Spirit Airlines Inc. (stylized as spirit) is a major ultra-low-cost U.S. carrier headquartered in Miramar, Florida, in the Miami metropolitan area. Spirit operates scheduled flights throughout the United States, the Caribbean and Latin Ameri ...

, and

Frontier Airlines Frontier Airlines is a major ultra-low-cost U.S. airline headquartered in Denver, Colorado. It operates flights to over 100 destinations throughout the United States and 31 international destinations, and employs more than 3,000 staff. The ca ...

. On 21 June 2015, the main fuselage components for the first aircraft built in Mobile arrived at the plant. The first aircraft, an A321, was delivered to JetBlue on 25 April 2016. All main fuselage parts are shipped by sea across the Atlantic from Hamburg, Germany. As scheduled, in December 2017 the assembly site produced the 50th aircraft and reached an output capacity of four planes per month.

Airbus A220

In October 2017, Airbus announced it would acquire a majority stake in the Canadian

Bombardier CSeries The Airbus A220 is a family of five-abreast narrow-body airliners by Airbus Canada Limited Partnership. It was originally designed by Bombardier and had two years in service as the Bombardier CSeries. The program was launched on 13 July 2 ...

programme. With the agreement, the CSeries Aircraft Limited Partnership will be divided as

at 50.01%,

Bombardier Aerospace Bombardier Aviation is a division of Bombardier Inc. It is headquartered in Dorval, Quebec, Canada. Its most popular aircraft included the Dash 8 Series 400, CRJ100/200/440, and CRJ700/900/1000 lines of regional airliners, and the newer CS ...

at 31%, and

Investissement Québec Investissement Québec is a company established in 1998 under an act passed by the National Assembly of Quebec to favour investment in Quebec by Quebec-based and international companies. Its registered office is located in Quebec City. In December 2 ...

at 19%. While manufacturing of the CSeries will continue at Bombardier's facilities in the province of Quebec, steep tariffs had tentatively been imposed on the Canadian-made planes being purchased by U.S. airlines. The plan to set up a second assembly line for the CSeries at the Airbus Mobile factory would mean that these aircraft would be domestically produced in the U.S. and avoid the possible tariffs. The

United States International Trade Commission The United States International Trade Commission (USITC or I.T.C.) is an agency of the United States federal government that advises the legislative and executive branches on matters of trade. It is an independent, bipartisan entity that analyze ...

ruled three months later that the Canadian-made planes did not threaten the U.S. airplane industry and no duty orders would be issued. Production of the A220 started in August 2019. The first aircraft from the new line, an A220-300, was delivered to

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also re ...

in October 2020.

References

External links