Allegiant Air has taken delivery of its first Airbus A320 built at the Airbus U.S. Manufacturing Facility in Mobile, marking a milestone both for the airline’s expanding fleet and for the local aerospace plant’s growing production record.
Executives from Airbus and Allegiant gathered at the Mobile facility alongside a team of Allegiant employees and representatives of the more than 380 workers employed at the plant to mark the handoff. The aircraft is the first of what Allegiant expects will be a steady stream of Mobile-built jets as the Las Vegas-based carrier continues shifting its entire fleet to Airbus aircraft.
“Airbus is committed to developing and producing fuel-efficient, passenger-friendly aircraft that are leaders in the evolving airline marketplace,” Bob Lekites, executive vice president of customers for Airbus Americas, said in a statement announcing the delivery. “Our partnership with Allegiant Air, coupled with our commitment to producing innovative aircraft, has allowed Allegiant to expand their ultra-low-cost consumer flight options. We are proud to deliver Allegiant their first Airbus aircraft manufactured in Mobile, and we look forward to providing them more aircraft that exceed customer expectations.”
Allegiant Chairman and CEO Maury Gallagher called the delivery an “exciting milestone” for the company in a statement of his own.
“This delivery is also an important step in our transition to an all-Airbus fleet, increasing efficiencies across our entire operation and bringing economic advantages in fuel savings, higher seat capacity and more,” Gallagher said.
The Mobile plant is now turning out A320 Family aircraft at a rate of roughly four per month. The Allegiant jet was the 69th aircraft delivered from the facility since it began operations in 2015, a pace that underscores how quickly the Brookley-based plant has scaled up since Airbus first broke ground on the site.
The delivery also coincided with the debut of a new dock built specifically to speed up the handoff of finished aircraft to airline customers. The Mobile Airport Authority, along with the city and county, funded and installed the new dock at Arlington Point at a cost of roughly $1.4 million. Airbus took its first deliveries from the new dock on May 16 and May 17, according to Executive Director Chris Curry, who briefed the Airport Authority’s board on the project earlier this week.
Authority Chairman Elliot Maisel touted both the new dock and an ongoing runway improvement project during the board meeting, framing the investments as part of the Authority’s broader mission to support the businesses operating at its industrial park.
“Both investments are capital investments for the benefit of a client or a number of clients,” Maisel said. “It should be noted that despite the fact we have limited resources, we manage to find a way to support the businesses at our park. They are economic drivers and it’s part of our mission.”
“It’s not the main part of our mission,” he added. “We’re not in the economic development business, but we’re glad to help when we can.”
Keeping the Mobile plant running requires a large, specialized workforce. More than 80 percent of the facility’s employees come from the Gulf Coast region, and nearly a third are U.S. military veterans, according to Airbus. The plant’s presence has also drawn a network of suppliers to open new facilities in the area, adding further jobs and economic activity beyond the assembly line itself.
Airbus has promoted the Mobile plant as part of a global production network that keeps aircraft moving off assembly lines around the clock. Along with Mobile, the company operates A320 Family final assembly lines in Hamburg, Germany; Toulouse, France; and Tianjin, China, allowing the company to say that the sun never sets on its manufacturing operations.