Airlines First U.S.-built A320 Takes Flight
The first Airbus A320 aircraft to be produced at the Airbus U.S. Manufacturing Facility in Mobile, Alabama, has flown for the first time. The A320 took off from the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley on Thursday. The flight lasted approximately four hours, during which tests were performed on systems, engines and structural performance.
The Airbus U.S. Manufacturing Facility can produce three members of the A320 Family: the A319, A320 and A321. Thus far, the 36 aircraft delivered since operations began in 2015 have been A321s.
The built Airbus A320 will be delivered to U.S. ultra low cost carrier Spirit Airlines soon. The carrier, headquartered in in Florida, operates around 100 Airbus A320 family aircraft on scheduled flights throughout the United States and in the Caribbean, Mexico, Latin America, and South America.
Airbus final assembly operations in Mobile, Alabama, commenced in the summer of 2015. The European company operates other final assembly lines in Toulouse, France; Hamburg, Germany; and Tianjin, China.
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Source © airbus.com