Airbus Effect

Florida’s Great Northwest hopes to create a Gulf Coast Aerospace Corridor

Watching the world’s fourth-largest commercial aerospace manufacturing city explode with growth just off your doorstep might be a source of envy for many. But don’t count Northwest Florida in that mix.

Building upon the ripple effect of this growth in Mobile, Alabama has become a mission for Jennifer Conoley and her staff at Florida’s Great Northwest (FGNW). As president and CEO of the organization promoting economic growth along the Panhandle, Conoley has been laser-focused on building relationships with Airbus officials, sharing the story of what Northwest Florida has to offer.

Those relationships, the success stories, and future goals were the primary topics of discussion at the FGNW quarterly directors meeting held at Florida State University Panama City on June 27, 2024.

Airbus and Boeing are the top two manufacturers of commercial aircraft in the world. The Airbus facility in Mobile, which broke ground just over a decade ago, has seen steady growth and is set to become the world’s fourth largest of its kind, behind facilities in Germany, France, and Seattle.

The 80 people attending the meeting listened to Airbus Head of State and Local Affairs Craig Savage talk about the company’s success and spell out why Northwest Florida is an important player in the future growth of Mobile.

“We now have an order book backlog of 8,000 aircraft,” Savage said. Shortening that backlog so customers don’t have to wait until 2032 to get their aircraft is fueling growth for his company.

To shorten that backlog, Airbus hopes to take advantage of the 3,000 military veterans who get out of the service along the Gulf Coast annually. Savage said talent acquisition is one of the big requirements to build out their ecosystem.

“We all want that talent to stay along the Gulf Coast,” he said, adding that of the 2,200 Airbus employees working in Mobile, 30 percent are military veterans.

Savage, an Air Force veteran himself once stationed at Tyndall Air Force Base, still has an 850 area code on his phone, a detail that makes Conoley claim him as a Northwest Floridian.

“We are on a mission in lockstep with Airbus to create the Gulf Coast Aerospace Corridor, and we want to outpace the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Corridor,” Conoley told the audience. For her organization, targeting aerospace suppliers in the region and forming relationships with the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) is equally important.

To do this, Conoley and staff have been meeting with Airbus officials and other aviation companies all over the world at trade shows and events in locations like Paris, France.

“It’s all about timing and finding the right person,” she said.

Conoley wants the smaller companies that make parts for Airbus to consider this region in their growth plans to be closer to the main facility.

According to Shane Chadwick, FGNW’s business intelligence and marketing manager, an analytical approach to forming these relationships is already starting to yield results. By targeting last-mile delivery component manufacturers, Chadwick said Northwest Florida has a competitive advantage being located close to six aerospace OEMs, as well as having six military installations within the region.

Chadwick uses a business intelligence software platform to target which of the 1,300 Airbus suppliers are likely to have a corporate expansion project in the future. He notes that in the past three years, this philosophy has yielded three site location announcements creating over 700 jobs and $75 million in capital investment in the region.

In the past four months, Chadwick said FGNW has reached out to 100 companies resulting in two new projects and one site visit.

“We’re just sharing our story,” Conoley told the Holley Academic Center audience. Her goal is to ensure Northwest Florida is a competitive player for this future growth surrounding Airbus. “We’re not asking anybody to say Northwest Florida is the only place you should be. But we want them to say Northwest Florida is absolutely somewhere you should consider.”