Airbus To Open A320 Plant in U.S.
A computer-generated aerial view of Airbus's planned new factory in Mobile, Alabama, shows a sprawling campus at Brookley Aeroplex. (Image: Airbus)
A computer-generated aerial view of Airbus's planned new factory in Mobile, Alabama, shows a sprawling campus at Brookley Aeroplex. (Image: Airbus)

Airbus plans to start building a new A320-family assembly plant in Mobile, Ala., next summer, the European airframer confirmed today, marking yet another expansion of its narrowbody production ambitions. Scheduled for completion at the beginning of 2016, the plant will produce between 40 and 50 A319s, A320s and A321s annually and employ 1,000, estimates Airbus. Plans call for the first airplane parts to arrive in 2015 and the first completed airplane to roll out in 2016.