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Airbus opens new Factory in the USA

 Airbus A320, with sharlet wings. Photo courtesy Julian Herzog and Wikimedia

 

Airbus is in the process of opening it's first manufacturing facility in the United States.  The company claims the factory will be the most efficient in the world and will have it focus on building the largest versions of its single-aisle aircraft, the A320 and the A321 (which can hold up to 240 passengers).

 

The factory is in Mobile, Alabama, on 116 acres.  It will have the capacity to produce eight A320  and A321 planes a month, although the company has no immediate plants to push US production to that level, planning on crafting about a plane a week in the immediate future. 

 

The Airbus factory is obviously in direct competition with its American counterpart, Boeing, which produces  up to 42 of its 737 jets a month at a factory in Renton, Washington (and has plans to increase production to 52 a month by 2018).  Between all of its facilities, Airbus will be producing about 50  of the A320 family planes a month by 2017.  Currently there is a huge back order of single aisle aircraft.

The U.S. presence gives Airbus a strong hand when negotiating with U.S. airlines.  The Mobile plant will supply North American airlines, with the first two planes going to JetBlue and American Airlines in 2016.

 

More on this story from Reuters at this link.

 

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  • Airbus A320, with sharlet wings.  Photo courtesy Julian Herzog and Wikimedia

Twitter: @DrFumblefinger

"We do not take a trip, a trip takes us".  John Steinbeck, from Travels with Charlie

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On my frequent visits to Philadelphia from England I always fly with US Airways.

Not an exciting experience - just a reliable journey with convenient times.

But my last round trip was an amazing transformation.

AMERICAN AIRLINES and US Airways have merged and the staff were amazing.

The plane was a new Airbus 330 both times. The legroom was more than enough. I usually purchase extra legroom and this time I'm glad I didn't.

The food was good and served hot. Free cans of Cola and orange etc. was served 4 times. Coffee that had real flavour too.

The staff were not the youngest - but what vitality they had. Any time you spoke to them they stopped and listened. Really chatty and helpful.

One really nice Flight Attendant was Matt. Like me - the wrong side of forty - his attitude was amazing. Nothing was too much trouble. I complimented him and the other staff. He told me that following the merger they were making an extra effort to keep customers happy. Well, its working. Try them. And don't buy extra legroom !

 

 

There's a lot of competition on the TransAtlantic routes, so airlines need to put their best effort into drawing in customers.

 

Just so you know, that's not usually what American is like when you fly it domestically.  But I'm glad you had a great experience with them.

Twitter: @DrFumblefinger

"We do not take a trip, a trip takes us".  John Steinbeck, from Travels with Charlie

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