Airbus readies new Alabama plant for combat with Boeing on U.S. soil

Airbus has finished building its Alabama A320-family factory and is installing equipment as it gears up to produce four airplanes monthly by 2017.

 

This will be just a fraction of the 47 competing model 737s that Boeing plans to be churning out in Renton by then. But the Mobile plant still represents a significant Airbus step onto U.S. soil, directed at U.S. customers and a significant threat to Boeing.

 

“The primary target and reason for doing it is coming closer to U.S. customers,” said Kristi Tucker, director of communications for Airbus Americas Inc. “But that doesn’t mean it’s limited to U.S. customers.”

 

Photos of the Mobile plant, at the center of a 116-acre campus, show a 836-foot-long rectangle that will house a single A320 production line, The campus eventually will support 10 structures, housing 1,000 people.

 

Plans are to build four A320-family models monthly by 2017, possibly rising to eight beyond that, she said. Production will start with A321s, the largest of the A320 line, and will gradually transition to the newer A321neo model.

 

The A321neos have been selling far better than the competing Boeing 737 Max 9 model. The first Airbus aircraft is to roll out in the second quarter of 2016.

 

An initial cost advantage for Airbus versus Boeing is that the new plant will be non-union, in a state with lower wages than Washington, but that will be counterbalanced by these factors:
 

• Boeing has achieved significant economies of scale by clustering all 737 manufacturing in Renton, versus Airbus’ four A320 plants around the world.

 

• Airbus will be transporting wing and fuselage assemblies from Europe to Mobile by ship, an expense and delay that will add extra costs.

 

• The Renton workforce is one of the most experienced anywhere. Pat Shanahan, senior VP of airplane programs for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, on Tuesday called Renton “The most efficient airplane factory in the world,” during the visit by Secretary of State John Kerry.

 

But Airbus has been implementing its strategy to build an Airbus-quality workforce from scratch, and now has 215 people on the site, some of whom Airbus has trained in Germany for up to nine months.

 

The “vast majority” of the new workers have aerospace background, and nearly 90 percent are from Alabama, Mississippi or Florida, Tucker said.

 

"We’ve been very pleased at the skill and the talent we’ve had come for the jobs, and I think Europe has been surprised as well,” she said. “For production roles we requested some sort of aerospace experience and we found it.”

 

Boeing, on the other hand, had to hire many relatively unskilled workers when it first opened its 787 Dreamliner plant in South Carolina.

 

The 215 people, she said, will act as a nucleus to train future hires in Airbus production methods.

 

(Steve Wilhelm - Puget Sound Business Journal)