Building Commercial Planes At Brookley?

By Tiffany Craig Investigative Reporter

Airbus already has an Engineering Facility at Brookley Field. Now, the European plane company is considering building commerical aircraft at the complex too! Building Commercial Planes At Brookley?

Published: Thu, December 06, 2007 - 9:30 pm Last Updated: Thu, December 06, 2007 - 10:48 pm

Tiffany Craig

Airbus commercial planes could one day be made in Alabama!

Doing business in dollars but paying expenses in euros is not paying off for the European Aircraft builder. So, they are looking for a new place to set up shop!

Marc Pelham with Mobile's Airport Authority says this could be exciting news for the Port City. "I mean you'd be able to fly in a plane and say this was built in Mobile, in my hometown that's pretty neat."

Airbus, which is owned by EADS, already has an Engineering Center at Brookley Field.

The European aerospace company and their partner Northrop Grumman plan to assemble air refueling tankers in Mobile if they win a 40 Billion Dollar military contract. The Air Force decision should come early next year.

Industry Sources tell News 5's Tiffany Craig that the Airbus Executive Committee met this week to discuss moving into the American Market. They are considering moving to Mobile if they win the tanker deal. However, there is also consideration to move commercial production to the Port City regardless of the tanker outcome!

This news comes as no surprise to Pelham. He says that Brookley has been on the radar for some time. "I think that the reasons that EADS and Northrop Grumman and Airbus chose Mobile are really good, solid, logical, compelling reasons to assemble aircraft here."

Mobile's odds are getting better to be the next home of a massive aircraft assembly facility. We'll just have to wait and see if its military tankers, commercial carriers or both!