Airbus just opened its A220 factory in Alabama that was originally intended to help avoid US tariffs on the plane, and JetBlue will be the first customer
by Thomas Pallini, Business Insider US
- Airbus has opened its A220 final assembly line in Mobile, Alabama, where parts will be pieced together to form the finished flyable product.
- Construction began in 2019 following a vow by Airbus to produce the aircraft in the US after a trade dispute between Boeing and Bombardier saw Airbus take a majority stake in the program.
- JetBlue Airways will be among the first customers to receive an A220 from the new final assembly line.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Airbus has established yet another foothold in the US with the completion of a new production plant for the Airbus A220 in Mobile, Alabama.
Officially opened on May 19, the facility on the grounds of Mobile Downtown Airport will house a final assembly line for the jet, piecing together parts shipped from around the world to create an airplane. The plant sits adjacent to Airbus’ A320 family final assembly line, where A319, A320, and A321s are completed and delivered to US customers.
JetBlue Airways will be among the first recipients of a US-assembled Airbus A220, scheduled for later this year as part of a fleet renewal. Delta Air Lines will also see more of its order for nearly 100 of the type come from Mobile, just 300 miles from its Atlanta headquarters.
Airbus first announced plans for the US-based facility when taking over the A220 program, then the C Series, from Bombardier. The Canadian manufacturer was staring down a near-300% tariff on the jet after receiving a later-overturned ruling from the US government following a dispute from competitor Boeing.
The threat of tariffs was ultimately eliminated following a subsequent ruling from the government but Airbus remained the majority shareholder of the program and construction of the facility began in 2019.
Take a look at the new plant.
Airbus first broke ground on the new plant in January 2019 and its opening inaugurated it as the ninth final assembly line in the European manufacturer’s global production operation.
Source: Airbus
The Mobile plant first opened in 2015, the first North American facility for Airbus where A320 family aircraft bound for US airlines would be built.
Read More: Check out the $600 million Alabama factory where Airbus builds jets for American, Delta, and JetBlue
While the buildings may look nondescript on the outside, their interiors house complex production lines that assemble multi-million dollar aircraft to major airline customers.
Here’s a look at the final assembly line for Airbus A320 family aircraft.
Different parts are shipped here from Airbus’ global supply chain and the final pieces are assembled. Hence, the facilities are known as final assembly lines or FALs.
Airbus previously only assembled three types of aircraft here including the Airbus A319,
Airbus A320,
And Airbus A321.
The cavernous buildings are lined with cranes that transport the sections from station to station to be completed in the same assembly line style pioneered by Henry Ford over 100 years ago to build Model Ts.
Source: History Channel
The planes assembled in this facility are destined for US airlines, with customers including nearly every airline in the country.
Airbus estimates by the end of 2020, five A320 family planes will be assembled here per month.
Source: Business Insider
Airbus typically opens FALs in regions with high customer bases with other locations including at Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, France, and also Tianjin, China; Hamburg Germany; and Mirabel, Quebec. The Mirabel facility is the only other A220 FAL, formerly of Bombardier.
Source: Airbus
While awaiting construction of a dedicated facility, Airbus began producing A220s in Mobile in 2019 but on the assembly line used by the A320 family jets.
Source: Airbus
Less than two years after breaking ground on the facility, the A220 final assembly line was opened on May 19.
Source: Airbus
JetBlue Airways will take delivery of its first Airbus A220 from here later this year, with the airline placing a 60 aircraft order for the larger A220-300 in 2018.
Source: JetBlue Airways
The next-generation jet will replace its Embraer E190 planes due to begin retirement in 2020.
Source: JetBlue Airways
JetBlue is the third North American recipient of the aircraft following Delta Air Lines,
And Air Canada.
A220s for David Neeleman’s new airline, Breeze Airways, will also likely be built here.
With two final assembly lines, the aircraft families will be produced side by side. For the A220, it will be a Canadian aircraft with a European name being built in America.
The A220’s wings will be shipped to Mobile, perfectly situated on the Gulf of Mexico, from Belfast, Northern Ireland.
While the cockpit and rear fuselage would be produced in Saint-Laurent, Quebec.
The completion of the Mobile FAL is a milestone for Airbus but not for Bombardier, the original manufacturer for the A220, originally known as the Bombardier CSeries.
Just a few years after Airbus and Bombardier inked the deal that saved the CSeries by putting it under the Airbus umbrella, the Canadian manufacturer couldn’t keep up and backed out of the deal, leaving Airbus and the Quebec government as the sole owners.
Source: Forbes