...as the fourth largest aircraft manufacturing hub...IN THE WORLD.
BOOMITY
I'll bet y'all didn't see that coming.
Neither did anyone else, except for a few visionaries back in 2008. That was when Airbus, as part of European consortium EADS, worked with Northrup Grumman to get in on the new, next-generation Air Force tanker deal, promised to build the bulk of the airframes in the United States, and won the initial contract for the project.
Long story short, screaming and kicking by Boeing, years of skullduggery and John McCain machinations went on, and by 2011, EADS and Airbus had lost the contract and the appeal. Everyone thought Airbus US was dead in the water.
But they went ahead and built a plant at the old Brookley Field just south of downtown Mobile anyway, officially opening the assembly line in 2015.
Plane number 500 rolled off the line and out of Brookley last year, and everyone couldn't be happier.
So happy, in fact, this past June I covered the next Airbus big announcement - that they were thinking about adding a third assembly line to the Mobile plant.
Guess what they did yesterday?
Airbus officially opened its third Final Assembly Line in Mobile on Monday, cementing the Alabama city’s status as the world’s fourth largest aircraft manufacturing hub behind Seattle, Toulouse, and Hamburg.
The new facility will produce A320-series aircraft, a single-aisle jetliner that earlier this month surpassed the Boeing 737 as the best-selling commercial airplane in history. The expansion doubles Mobile’s potential A320 output to 16 planes per month and brings total production capacity at the campus to about 20 aircraft per month, including four A220-series jets.
(Fourth behind Hamburg, Germany? With what that city just voted to do to themselves, Mobile will be No. 3 in no time flat.)
There are lots of good, highly skilled jobs that came with the company's setting down roots in Mobile, as well as the associated industries supporting the manufacturing facility.
...Daryl Taylor, senior vice president of Commercial Aircraft Operations for Airbus in the U.S., said the new assembly line adds 1,000 jobs, bringing total employment at the site to more than 2,000. Airbus expects to employ up to 3,100 workers in Mobile by the end of its current ramp-up phase, with an additional 300 to 400 jobs anticipated once the new line reaches full capacity.
...Republican U.S. Senator Katie Britt credited the Mobile-based workforce that continues to grow, while fellow Senator Tommy Tuberville praised the company’s focus on hiring veterans. He said that close to 30 percent of the Airbus workforce in Mobile has a military background.
And Mayor Sandy Stimpson, who's leaving office this year, hasn't forgotten the Washington State Boeing snobs sneering at the idea of building jetliners in Alabama.
...The expansion also brought about a bit of city pride and thumbing at past critics who claimed that Mobile did not have the capacity to build airplanes.
Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson, who is retiring on November 3, acknowledged the past criticism from Washington Democratic U.S. Senator Patty Murray without naming her. Murray made the comments in 2009, at a time that Boeing and Airbus were in competition for a military tanker refueling contract.
“Ever since I heard her say that,” Stimpson said, “I knew she was underestimating us.”
Someone ought to ask Senator Murray how the Air Force is enjoying the Boeing tanker that Washington pols worked so hard under the table to make sure the local company won.
It only took Boeing something like eleven years to deliver the first one, and it's been nothing but issue after issue since.
The Air Force has instructed Boeing to halt deliveries of the KC-46 tanker after cracks were found on two production aircraft awaiting their handoff to the Air Force.
The decision to pause deliveries was made on Feb. 27 by the service’s KC-46A program office “due to the identification of in the ‘outboard fixed-trailing-edge support structure’” of the two planes, an Air Force spokesperson said.
...The KC-46 has experienced numerous technical issues and schedule delays during its development and fielding, chiefly the redesign of the aircraft’s Remote Vision System — a collection of sensors that allow the boom operator to refuel a receiver airplane without visually looking out a window — which is expected to be fielded in 2026.
Those issues and others have resulted in billions of dollars in cost overruns for Boeing, which is locked into a fixed-price contract that holds it responsible for paying costs above a certain threshold. Losses on the KC-46 amounted to $2 billion in 2024, Boeing stated in regulatory filings released in January.
The Air Force last paused KC-46A deliveries for a two month period beginning in March 2024, which occurred so that the service could inspect production and fielded aircraft for a broken component on the aircraft’s boom.
The service recorded a new “category 1” technical deficiency for the program a couple months later after discovering that vibrations from a fuel pump that were damaging bleed air ducts, Air Force officials told reporters in July.
But no worries. The Air Force has come up with a new way to buy new tankers...from Boeing.
Air Force again changes course on tankers, plans new ‘production extension’ program
The Air Force plans to use the Boeing KC-46 Pegasus’s Capability Production Document “as the most affordable requirements basis” for the new program, potentially giving the embattled aerospace manufacturer a leg up in a competition.
Just two years after unveiling a new tanker strategy that would involve the development of a futuristic stealthy tanker, the Air Force is yet again shifting course for its air refueling fleet, and is now eyeing a novel program to extend tanker production — a move that could favor Boeing’s KC-46 Pegasus.
...It’s not clear what the Air Force will ultimately decide for the new production extension program. One path would involve a competition that could draw rival bids for the KC-46 from industry players like Airbus and Embraer who have previously expressed interest in providing the service’s tanker needs. Whatever is ultimately picked for this new extension program would start production after Boeing completes deliveries under its current KC-46 contract, which is expected to conclude around the end of this decade.
However, it is also possible the Air Force simply decides to buy more KC-46s, either as a result of a competition or as a sole-source selection. Notably, the budget documents say that the Air Force will use the Pegasus’s Capability Production Document “as the most affordable requirements basis” for the production extension effort.
Sure, why not keep buying that crappy ass tanker. They'll get it right eventually.
Who says the process isn't rigged? Not me!
In the meantime, Airbus keeps rolling planes out of Brookley Field.
And they're happy as clams to do so.
Airlines seem pretty happy to buy Alabama-made Airbus airliners.
Airbus (AIR.PA), opens new tab has seen a marked improvement in confidence and performance from its suppliers, all of whom are ready to support the company's target of increasing deliveries by 7% to some 820 jets this year, a senior company official said on Monday.The European planemaker is also on its way towards a longer-term goal of increasing underlying output of narrow-body jets to 75 a month in 2027, Florent Massou dit Labaquere, executive vice-president for operations, told reporters.
From an old, empty hangar on a forgotten, near derelict military airfield with around 300 people...to this.
From one assembly line to two (soon to be three)!
— Airbus in the U.S. (@AirbusInTheUS) September 14, 2025
From 300 employees to 2,000+!
From being the new kid in town to being the flagship of the city. Happy 10th Anniversary to the Airbus U.S. Manufacturing Facility in Mobile, Alabama!#MadeInAlabama #A320 #A220 pic.twitter.com/BpLmW7GJSU
Who could have ever imagined?
#MadeInTheUSA is quite cool.
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