Airbus heads south in battle with Boeing

It’s no secret that there is no love lost between Boeing and Airbus. When you’re part of a duopoly in one of the world’s most lucrative and high profile industries, a win for the opposition means a loss on your scorecard. Any order placed with your competitor is literally taking food from your mouth (albeit perhaps USDA prime rib or foie gras, depending on whether you’re in Seattle or Toulouse). Such circumstances tend to breed contempt, possibly sometimes married with a begrudging respect.

This week, the stakes got raised a little higher in this particular game of heads-up poker. On Monday, Airbus held the inauguration ceremony for its brand new final assembly line (FAL) factory in Mobile, Alabama. The plant will receive pre-fabricated sections of planes from Airbus’s European manufacturing centres, shipped across the Atlantic to be put together in the US. When fully up to speed in about 18 months, four new aircraft from the A320 family will roll off the line each month.