Airbus Launches Boeing Challenge in U.S. with Factory Start
Airbus A350
Airbus chief Fabrice Bregier: “We are convinced that we can take over the US market”
European-based Airbus is to launch its invasion into Boeing territory on Monday with the groundbreaking for construction of its first US plant in Alabama.
The move to grab a larger share of the huge US commercial airline market from Boeing comes as the US behemoth struggles with its Dreamliner, grounded due to battery problems.
“We have to be visible in the United States,” Airbus chief Fabrice Bregier declared last summer when the factory plans were announced in Mobile.
The 600-million-dollar factory will begin producing Airbus’s successful A320 commercial planes by 2015, and plans to produce 40 to 50 of the middle-distance aircraft a year and employ 1,000 people when fully operational.
“We are convinced that we can take over the US market,” Bregier predicted.