Journalists from around the world got an early look this week inside Airbus’s new $600 million manufacturing facility at Brookley Aeroplex in Mobile, just a day before the plant’s official grand opening ceremony.
The tour offered a rare preview of the sprawling complex, which spans more than 200,000 square feet and represents one of the largest industrial investments in the history of the Gulf Coast region. Airbus asked visiting media to hold off publishing photos until the facility’s formal opening, treating the unveiling as a milestone moment for both the company and the aerospace community that had anticipated the plant’s completion for years.
The Mobile facility marks Airbus’s first full aircraft assembly line on U.S. soil, a project that had been years in the making since the European aerospace giant first announced plans to build in the region. Construction of the plant at the former Brookley Air Force Base site began in 2013, following a lengthy competition among several states for the investment.
Inside, the plant is outfitted with state-of-the-art tooling and assembly stations designed to bring together fuselage sections, wings and other major components shipped in from Airbus facilities in Europe. Once fully staffed, the site is expected to employ hundreds of local workers building single-aisle aircraft for airlines across North America.
The Mobile plant has been widely viewed as a turning point for Alabama’s aerospace and advanced manufacturing sector, positioning the state alongside more established aviation hubs. Local and state officials had spent years courting Airbus and other aerospace suppliers, betting that landing a major final assembly operation would help anchor a broader supply chain of parts manufacturers and support businesses in the Mobile area.
Community and business leaders have pointed to the facility as a validation of Mobile’s deep-water port access, its existing aerospace workforce experience and its Gulf Coast location, which offers direct shipping routes for the oversized aircraft components that arrive from overseas. The opening also builds on the region’s decades-long relationship with aerospace and shipbuilding industries centered around the Brookley site and the Port of Mobile.
Officials have said the facility is expected to ramp up production gradually as new hires complete training and the assembly line reaches full operating capacity. The plant’s opening has been described by regional economic development officials as one of the most significant announcements for Mobile’s economy in recent memory, with ripple effects expected for suppliers, logistics companies and the broader workforce across Mobile and Baldwin counties.