Airbus has announced that it will increase the production rate for its A320 family from four to seven aircraft per month at the company’s Mobile, Alabama, manufacturing facility by the beginning of 2021. To support both the production increase along and continued recruiting efforts for the A220 manufacturing team, Airbus says it will be adding 275 additional jobs at the facility over the next year on top of the new 600 positions it added in Mobile in 2019. The production increase at the Alabama site is part of a broader plan to ramp up worldwide A320 production to 63 aircraft per month next year.
“Airbus has been manufacturing in the U.S. for many years now through our helicopter, aircraft and satellite products,” said Airbus Americas Chairman and CEO C. Jeffrey Knittel. “This increase in commercial aircraft production in Mobile is an exciting expansion of our significant industrial investment in the U.S., and it continues Airbus’ positive contribution to American aerospace.”
According to Airbus, 2020 will see the opening of a new final assembly line for the A220 in Mobile and the first delivery of a U.S.-made A220. The company also has plans for the construction of an additional support hangar at the site, a project that is expected to come with a price tag of around $40 million. Airbus began commercial aircraft manufacturing operations in Mobile in 2015.
