Mobile County Commission To Give Airbus $10 Million In Incentives

The Mobile County Commission approved an Airbus expansion project incentive package of $10 million at its regular meeting on June 12. It expects the investment to yield 1,000 new jobs for local residents over the next 10 years, boost Airbus’ capital infrastructure outlay to roughly $1 billion at the Mobile Brookley Aeroplex and solidify Mobile’s position as the fourth-largest commercial aerospace manufacturing site in the world. The commission will appropriate $1 million each year for 10 years to Airbus. The City of Mobile approved a similar agreement on May 30, 2023. The agreement specifies that the minimum average salary for these new jobs is $31.25 per hour; Airbus must invest $2.5 million of Mobile County’s incentive package toward apprenticeship and/or training programs to benefit local students, newly graduated students and adults with little to no formal skills or training; and Airbus must pay back the Mobile County cash incentives if it does not meet its hiring target thresholds at specified intervals, with a total employee count of more than 2,100 by the end of 2029. This expansion to create a second A320 assembly line creates Airbus’ third assembly line at Brookley Aeroplex. Airbus currently employs approximately 1,100 people and has produced more than 350 aircraft in Mobile since its first final assembly line became operational in 2015 and its first plane was delivered in 2016. Since Airbus committed to assembling aircraft in Mobile more than a decade ago, 22 Airbus suppliers have relocated to Mobile County, according to the Mobile Chamber.