Airbus Plan Has States Interested

A pitch by European aircraft maker Airbus for a $600-million U.S. plant on Tuesday drew representatives from 35 states, nine of which have ties to archrival Boeing Co., including California.

Officials from Washington state -- where Boeing assembles 737s, 747s, 767s and 777s -- were among those attending the informational session hosted by European Aeronautic Defense & Space Co., parent company of Airbus.

France-based EADS has said it plans to open a U.S. manufacturing site within a year, with hopes of building a refueling tanker to compete with the Boeing 767 for a multibillion-dollar Air Force contract to replace the aging fleet of Boeing-built KC-135 tankers.

In addition to California, states represented at the Washington, D.C., meeting included Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Illinois, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Texas, EADS officials said.

Other states interested in the Airbus plant include North Carolina, Mississippi, Oklahoma and New Mexico.

Congress last year nullified a potential $23-billion deal with Boeing amid a growing ethics scandal that has led to guilty pleas by two top Boeing executives. The Pentagon is expected to reopen the deal to competition this year.

Ralph Crosby, chairman and chief executive of EADS North America, called the meeting the first step in the selection of a U.S. site, which should occur within a year. States interested in bidding on the Airbus plant were given a March 31 deadline to submit a general plan.

EADS has asked states to select as many as three sites that would be capable of providing the workforce, transportation options and resources needed for a facility to assemble the tanker, which would be based on the Airbus A330 passenger jet.