The announcement came last year and the project won’t be done until 2025, but even the governor turned out yesterday to celebrate the expansion in progress at Airbus in Mobile.
Red, white and blue flares lit the afternoon sky behind the site of the 350,000-square-foot Final Assembly Line under construction at the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley.
The new FAL will double the facility’s capacity to produce A320 family aircraft. And the company plans to add another 1,000 workers, bringing its employee count to 2,800, Gov. Kay Ivey noted.
“The relationship between Airbus and Alabama is a shining example of what can be accomplished when great organizations join hands,” Ivey said. “Airbus, a global leader in the aerospace industry, has placed its trust in Alabama … and folks, we are rising to the occasion.”
The company has two operating FALs today, the original — announced in 2012 — producing A320 craft and the newer one producing smaller A220 craft.
Overall, the European aerospace/aviation firm has invested more than $1 billion in its facilities in Mobile, the only commercial aircraft plant Airbus has in the U.S.
Bob Smith, the aerospace specialist with Alabama’s Department of Commerce, said the ceremony highlights rapid growth at the company’s Mobile campus.
“This is really the next step in the project that will add the third Final Assembly Line in Mobile,” Smith said. “In 2025, 1,000 more Alabamians will have an opportunity to build the finest commercial aircraft in the world.”
The added capacity will make Mobile one of the world’s largest aircraft manufacturing cities.
