Airbus prepares for Mobile plant opening

Airbus gave a media tour of their new plant that is opening tomorrow in Mobile Alabama. No information is allowed to be released until after they have the ceremony tomorrow, but the first aircraft are already in place to be assembled. Two shipsets have arrived, and four stations are occupied. The first two aircraft are A321s, belonging to Jetblue (in station 40, moving to wing/body join within two weeks), and American at Station 41. Both aircraft are expected to fly in the first quarter of 2016.

By the end of 2017, the plant will be delivering 4 aircraft a month. The big change over other plants is that they are qualifying an automated system at the wing to body join station, to drill 2400 holes where the two meet. There's a bit of a fight between Europe and the US facilities though. Europe sees an expansion to the A320 that would include building a new line in Hamburg, while the head of the US side sees moving production to Mobile from other locations to ramp up production.

Airbus opened the $600 million final assembly and delivery center for the A320 aircraft family in Mobile, Alabama, to the international press for the first time on 13 September.
Although videos and photos are forbidden to be released until a public grand opening scheduled early on 14 September, a 90-minute tour revealed an almost exact copy of the company’s 'Hangar 9' final assembly hall in Hamburg, Germany, with still plenty of room to grow well beyond the plan to reach four aircraft deliveries per month from Mobile by the end of 2017.

“It signifies that Airbus is already a US manufacturer,” says Airbus chief executive Fabrice Bregier, speaking in a downtown Mobile hotel on a panel of company executives to reporters after the tour.

Two shipsets of A320 assemblies have already arrived in Mobile since June, filling two of the four stations in the final assembly. The first aircraft in assembly, a JetBlue A321, is approaching the Station 40 wing-to-body join within two weeks. The fuselage for an American Airlines A321 is sitting behind in Station 41. Both aircraft could fly in the first quarter of 2016, followed by deliveries beginning in the second quarter of next year.

www.flightglobal.com...

When is Boeing's final assembly plant in France opening up?

originally posted by: Stngray
When is Boeing's final assembly plant in France opening up?

Never. They are opening a new assembly site in China, which makes sense since China is now their best customer. Boeing has a history of siting subassembly plants and component manufacturing to lure sales from the relavent country. Since there is not a chance of selling Boeings in France, given the French stake in Airbus, it would be lunacy to site a facility there.

originally posted by: F4guy
... Since there is not a chance of selling Boeings in France, given the French stake in Airbus, it would be lunacy to site a facility there.

Every higher profile european carrier is running a mixed fleet, including Air France...

a reply to: Lonestar24

That would be the equivalent of Airbus opening a plant in Seattle.

originally posted by: Lonestar24

originally posted by: F4guy
... Since there is not a chance of selling Boeings in France, given the French stake in Airbus, it would be lunacy to site a facility there.

Every higher profile european carrier is running a mixed fleet, including Air France...

Almost all of the Air France Boeing fleet resulted from the KLM merger with KLM's huge 747 fleet. They had 68 of them. 5 are left. The merger brought in 63 737s. None are left. Air France has 160 Airbus aircraft in the current fleet. China, on the other hand, is forecast to buy more than 6,300 airliners in the next 20 years. Air China just ordered 60 new 737s. Last year, China East Airline bought 80 new Boeings.

a reply to: F4guy

I still see Air France 747's and 777's all the time at my local int'l airport...

Well I doubt they will be making the wings in the UK and ship them across the pond?

a reply to: Barnalby

They have 5 747-400s, 27 777-200s, and 39 777-300s. The rest of their inventory is Airbus.

originally posted by: Barnalby
a reply to: F4guy

I still see Air France 747's and 777's all the time at my local int'l airport...

Check the tail numbers and you will find that the 747s were bought (or leased) by KLM before the merger and most of the 777s are leased on leases originally to KLM.