MOBILE, Ala. (WPMI) Construction is set to begin on the new Airbus Facility the first week of April, which means thousands of jobs in the Port City. Local leaders within the city and county left for Hamburg, Germany, on Friday to get a first hand look at what Mobile's facility will look like.
Local 15's Modupe Idowu caught up with Mayor Sam Jones and County Commissioner Jerry Carl while on tour.
"We met as a group and kind of over viewed what we need to do at Brookley Field to get Airbus comfortable," said Carl.
He added, "We got to actually see the wiring, the plumbing, everything being put together. A finished product."
Commissioner Carl and Mayor Sam Jones, along with other city and county officials, left for Hamburg, Germany, Friday to not only tour Airbus plants, but to convince their suppliers to build warehouses in Mobile County.
"You start looking at the math, and you're looking at between 7,000 to 8,000 jobs. And then you take those jobs and do the multiplication between the grocery stores and service stations and the numbers just start exploding," said Carl.
Mayor Jones added, "So we see a huge opportunity to increase people with good paying jobs in Mobile as well as enhance our economy overall."
Governor Bentley announced unemployment is under 7 percent for the state, but Mobile County saw a spike, jumping from 7.3 percent to 8.7 percent.
Carl stated, "The unemployment rate in Mobile may be higher right now, but things are coming and coming fast."
So fast, Airbus signed a record $24 billion contract to build 234 planes for the low cost Lion Air, a major loss for Boeing.
Jones stated, "That's the A330 the A330 is rather the top selling plan in the world. That's the plane that we will be building in Mobile.
County officials stated Airbus has already booked seven years worth of manufacturing.
