1/15/2008 - Airbus hopes to build Alabama assembly line

PARIS (AP) - European planemaker Airbus said Monday it will build an assembly plant for civilian and military aircraft in Mobile, Alabama, if its partner Northrop Grumman Corp. wins an order for aerial refueling tankers from the United States Air Force.
Airbus rival Boeing Co. and defense contractor Northrop Grumman are competing for the $40 billion (¤26.9 billion) contract for 179 refueling planes which the Air Force is set to award Jan. 31. The decision has already been delayed twice.
Airbus CEO Tom Enders said the planemaker could start assembling the A330 civilian freighter aircraft on a «large-scale industrial site» planned for the assembly of Northrop Grumman KC-30 advanced tanker cargo aircraft should Boeing lose the contract.
The site would employ more than 1,000 people, and a production line for the A330 would add hundreds more jobs, Airbus said. Construction could begin as soon as this year, depending on the timing of U.S. military decision.
The European planemaker already has an engineering center in Mobile slated to employ 150 people by 2009.
«The dollar-euro exchange rate makes it advantageous for us to expand our operations in the United States,» Enders said in a statement.
«While it would be difficult to overcome the cost of building a final assembly line in the U.S. strictly for commercial aircraft, it would make good economic sense to invest the incremental cost of expanding the facility that would already exist for assembling tanker aircraft,» he said.

The assembly line would be Airbus' seventh U.S. facility. Aircraft sections would be delivered to Mobile to be assembled from production facilities around the world.
The new aerial tankers, considered to be one of the Air Force's highest priority programs, will replace an aging fleet of KC-135 Stratotankers made by Boeing that have been in service for more than 50 years.
Senior Air Force officials say the program is critical for U.S. military and coalition fighters to enable forces to go anywhere, anytime without having to rely on refueling bases.

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