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Airbus' parent firm chooses Alabama site for new factory

The parent company of French aircraft maker Airbus has selected Mobile, Alabama, over three other Southern sites for a US$600 million refueling-tanker factory.

The European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co (EADS) selected the Alabama site over three rival bids from Melbourne in Florida, Kiln in Mississippi and North Charleston in South Carolina, a congressional source and an Alabama source said on Tuesday.

The company planned to announce the decision yesterday at a news conference in Washington. Officials at the company did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

But during a recent visit to a proposed site near Charleston International Airport, the head of the company's defense division said the contract would be a boon. If the company gets part of a military contract to build KC-330 tankers, the winning community could land up to 1,000 jobs.

"You're bringing in a whole bunch of top-level jobs. It was our opinion we did not want it to appear as if we cut some deal," said David Oliver Jr., chief executive for EADS North American Defense.

EADS, which is based in France and Germany, has said it plans to offer a tanker version of its Airbus A330 passenger jet for the multibillion-dollar US air force contract to produce a new generation of aerial-refueling tankers.

Chicago-based Boeing Co lost the tanker deal last year, after revelations that it had hired a top air force acquisitions official, who later admitted giving the company preferential treatment.

The immensely public search gave EADS some much-needed positive spin at a time when the US and the EU are engaged in a trade battle over the EU's subsidies to Airbus, which the US claims gives it an unfair advantage over its chief rival, Boeing.

EADS hopes to get a substantial portion of the expected US$9 billion in new spending for military tanker planes, but congressional leaders are trying to tie the subsidy debate to the contract decision.
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