Construction of Airbus’ A320 final assembly line at the Mobile Aeroplex is progressing on schedule and within budget, with company officials saying the plant could receive its first shipment of major aircraft components from Europe through the Port of Mobile as early as June.
The vice president overseeing the Mobile facility told reporters this week that the project remains on track to begin incremental production this summer, with the first Mobile-assembled aircraft slated for delivery to a major U.S. airline carrier in 2016. He described construction of the plant’s three primary structures — its hangar, logistics center and service center — as nearing substantial completion, with crews now installing the heavy jigs and tooling systems needed for final assembly work.
The roughly $600 million facility represents Airbus’ first A320 assembly line built on U.S. soil, part of the company’s strategy to work through a substantial backlog of orders for its popular single-aisle aircraft. Once fully operational, the plant is expected to employ about 1,000 workers and produce 40 to 50 aircraft annually by 2018.
Major components including fuselage sections and wings will arrive in pieces from manufacturing sites in France, Germany and Spain, shipped by vessel into the Port of Mobile before being transported to the assembly site for final construction.
A construction executive overseeing the project on behalf of a Birmingham-based program management firm said all of the facility’s major structures are now vertical, meaning most remaining visible work will shift to site improvements such as taxiways, aprons and fencing.
Airbus officials highlighted the project’s local economic impact, noting that a majority of spending on construction and equipment to date has gone to Alabama- and Mobile-based suppliers, with the vast majority of overall spending staying within the United States. Company data also showed that most of the roughly 150 employees hired for the assembly line over the past year live within about 50 miles of Mobile, with most of the remainder coming from elsewhere in Alabama, Florida or Mississippi.
The company’s human resources director for the Mobile site said dozens of local trainees currently working at Airbus facilities in Germany and France have received strong reviews from company leadership overseas and are expected to return home this spring and summer to help transition the plant into full operation. She said the strength of that in-house training program should allow Airbus to broaden its local hiring criteria going forward, opening positions to candidates with less prior aviation experience.
Officials credited a state-run workforce training partnership with playing a central role in recruitment and training efforts for the project, and said additional job postings tied to the assembly line would continue to be added as construction moves toward completion.