European planemaker Airbus said today it would open its first US assembly plant in Mobile, Alabama, with the first aircraft to roll out in 2016.
"The time is right for Airbus to expand in America," said Fabrice Bregier, Airbus president and chief executive, at the announcement in Mobile of the assembly line that will produce the single-aisle A320 planes.
The new production line in the world's largest single-aisle plane market directly challenges US arch-rival Boeing on its home turf.
Bregier said an estimated 4,600 single-aisle planes will be required for the US market, "and this assembly line brings us closer to our customers."
The move extends the Toulouse, France-based company global production network, which includes assembly lines in Hamburg in Germany and Tianjin in China. Boeing, by contrast, only builds aircraft in the US, near Seattle and in Charleston, South Carolina.
Airbus, a subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, said construction of the Mobile plant would begin in the summer of 2013. Assembly of the aircraft was planned to start in 2015, with first deliveries set for 2016.
The plant is expected to produce between 40 and 50 aircraft a year by 2018, the company said.
