Airbus Takes Off At Brookley

By Tiffany Craig Investigative Reporter

Hundreds of high-tech jobs could be landing at Mobile's Brookley Field but the deal comes with a catch. Airbus Takes Off At Brookley

Published: Mon, January 14, 2008 - 6:10 pm Last Updated: Mon, January 14, 2008 - 6:35 pm

Tiffany Craig

Executives with Airbus and its parent company EADS say they want to build commercial planes in Alabama!

The deal will bring 300 additional jobs to Brookley Field but it comes with a catch.

The commercial side will happen *if* EADS and their partner Northrop Grumman win the 40 billion dollar Air Force contract to assemble refueling tankers for the military.

That contract has the two companies going head-to-head with Boeing. A decision in the competition is expected in February.

If Mobile wins the tanker contract and gets the commercial freighter business, the Port City would shine in the international spotlight as a major player in the aerospace industry.

Ralph Crosby is CEO of EADS North America and talked to News 5's Tiffany Craig. "We're gonna win the tanker and when we win the tanker we're gonna produce freighters here as well and that's gonna triple the economic activity at Brookley Field." Tiffany asks, "But you won't say what will happen if we don't get it?" Crosby responds, "I'm not focusing on the negative. Everything that we've said here today continues our strong commitment to Alabama."

Both the KC-30 Tanker and the commercial freighter are made from the shell of the twin-engine passenger jet, the A330. According to company officials, the combined projects would keep the operation efficient and make production flow smoothly.

Today's announcement would mean the facility would crank out 4 planes a month. (1 military, 3 commercial)

Industry insiders say Airbus and EADS need the military contract to be able to open any kind of commercial operation in the U.S. and without that money; they simply can't afford the overhead.