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Airbus’ fast-growing Alabama factory delivers 100th aircraft to Delta Air Lines


Somehow, since the Airbus assembly plant in Mobile, Alabama, opened in 2015, things seem to have gone in the right direction.

The factory produces two popular types of aircraft: the A220 regional jet and the A320 family jet, including the A321, now the “it plane” of the aviation industry. The main competitor is Boeing, a once-vaunted 106-year-old company that has been temporarily overwhelmed by a series of bad decisions. Among them are attempt to impose tariffs on Canadian-made aircraft, which prompted Airbus to buy a 75% stake in Bombardier and move some A220 production from Canada to Mobile. The Mobile Factory got through the pandemic without laying off anyone – and now, planes are in short supply around the world.

In May, Airbus said it would add 1,000 jobs in Mobility, allowing for the addition of a second assembly line for the A320 family – in addition to the existing lines for the A220 and A320. Since May, several hundred jobs have been added, bringing the current number of jobs to about 1,500; The target is 2,500 jobs by 2027.

“That’s not bad for a place that didn’t build planes seven years ago,” said Daryl Taylor, vice president and general manager of the Mobile plant. About 75% of employees represent local tenants. To date, Airbus has invested around $1 billion in Mobile.

Last week, there was one more achievement on Mobile. On Thursday, the factory delivered 100order aircraft of Delta Air Lines, an important customer. The aircraft is an A321neo (new engine option) with Pratt & Whitney engines. U.S. airlines often say they’re “upgrading,” which usually means they’re replacing smaller narrow-body planes with higher-capacity A321s.

Configured for Frontier Airlines, which announced its first A321neo two weeks ago at a ceremony in Tampa, the A321 can carry 240 passengers, but Delta says it will fly the aircraft with 194 passengers in three classes. Delta uses the A321neos primarily for transcontinental flights.

The 100 units delivered to Delta from Mobile include 88 of the A320 series, while 12 are of the A220 series.

Delta is based in Atlanta, just 300 miles away. “What they love is being able to go to Mobile and get both planes and make their lives easy,” Taylor said.

Taylor said that one day, all of Airbus’ narrowbody deliveries to US carriers “will be from Mobile and so we’re building capacity,” but for now, demand “has been” beyond our capabilities in the Mobile sector, so there are some deliveries out of Europe . “

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More about Delta and its Airbus A220s:

Last week, when asked on CNBC’s Squawk Box about the global plane shortage, due to supply chain issues, American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said: “Boeing and Airbus are good partners. . We need them to be great. We really do. We depend on them for a living. “

“They have to be on time, in terms of delivery time,” he added. “You have to build a business to make sure it serves what you’re committed to. I know they want to do it. They have to catch up, like we all had to do with the pandemic. “

TAD DENSON / AIRBUS

To date, Mobile has delivered about 340 aircraft, including about 300 of the A320 series. Airbus said that globally, by 2025, it plans to produce 75 A320 family aircraft and 14 A220 family aircraft every month. Similar rate is expected in Mobile.

Mobile delivered its first aircraft, an A321, to JetBlue in April 2016. Customers include American, Allegiant, Delta, Frontier, Hawaiian and JetBlue as well as rental companies. First delivery of A220 went to Delta in 2019.

The future may include the construction of a military refueling aircraft, the LMXT, a version of the Airbus A330 that will be produced in partnership with Lockheed Martin. The two companies say that if the Air Force chooses the plane proposed by Boeing, they will assemble it in Mobile and take it to a Lockheed facility in Marietta, Georgia, for military refueling and electronics.

Growth remained steady, with the exception of a pause in the spring of 2020, when COVID-19 first emerged. That April, May, and June, the factory didn’t make deliveries, but “there isn’t a month where we don’t build planes,” Taylor said. During the slow months, Airbus did not lay off any permanent workers and continued to build A220 production facilities. By the end of 2020, every customer had resumed deliveries.

Scott Hamilton, chief executive officer of aviation consulting firm Leeham Partners, said: “The creation of the Mobile final assembly line, and with it a growing aerospace cluster there, obviously creating jobs and industry. This is a positive for American aerospace.”

But Hamilton noted that Boeing maintains a solid American presence: Alaska, Southwest and United airlines are still wholly or mainly Boeing customers, and Delta said in July that it would add 100 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft to its fleet, with options for 30 more.

Hamilton recalled Boeing triggering Mobile’s entry into the A220 business.

“Boeing’s commercial complaint against Bombardier not only promotes sell C Series program for Airbus but creating an A220 (final assembly line) in Mobile and Delta committed to deliver the A220 from Mobile once it is operational,” he said. “Boeing completely miscalculated the impact of its commercial claims. It now competes in the 150-seat space with a strong Airbus rather than a weak Bombardier. “

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