Mayor Ashton Hayward and the Greater Pensacola Area Chamber of Commerce
are in England for the biggest aerospace event in the world. This isn’t the first time Escambia County has attended, but it may be the most important time.
Airbus’s announcement last week that it plans to build a $600-million aircraft assembly plant in Mobile has made our western neighbor the hottest story in aerospace industry.
The Mobile Press Register is reporting that the can-t-miss event party in London this past weekend was the one hosted by the Aerospace Alliance, a trade association representing the states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi, in the Banqueting House at Whitehall Palace. In attendance were executives from Airbus, Rolls-Royce, Raytheon and dozens more companies hoping to win business selling parts and services to the new plant, set to begin production of A320 aircraft in 2016.
Let’s hope that Pensacola, Escambia County and Santa Rosa County can provide a united front and with the help of Gov. Rick Scott lure some huge employers to our area. The chambers, county commissions and city councils in the two-county area will need to work together on incentives to make it happen.
