U.S. cities form line for possible Airbus plant

Officials from Spokane and two other Washington cities will meet in Washington, D.C., next week to discuss a possible bid to land a major production site for a European company hoping to build the next generation of Air Force tankers.

Airbus, the European subsidiary of EADS — the European Aeronautic Defenceand Space Co. — has said it will choose an American location to possibly build a replacement tanker for the aging fleet of KC-135s.

The U.S. Defense Department has not yet decided to replace the tankers. And Congress hasn’t agreed to open up the contract to competition if the money is found to replace the old Boeing-built tankers.

Even so, Airbus has launched an effort to drum up U.S. interest by saying it’s looking for the best city to build a $600-million assembly site if it ever gets the tanker bid.

It’s asked all 50 states to select three cities that would be capable of providing the work force, transportation options and resources needed for the tanker site.

“It is a long shot for us,” said Theresa Sanders of the Spokane Area Economic Development Council.

Despite the long odds, Sanders said she and counterparts from Moses Lake and Everett will fly to Washington, D.C., next Tuesday to meet with officials of EADS North America, the U.S. Airbus division.

About 100 other U.S. officials are expected to meet with Airbus officials during the daylong meeting, said Guy Hicks, an EADS spokesman based in Virginia.

Sanders’ visit to Washington next week is a chance to double-check the list of expectations Airbus has for any possible location, plus an opportunity to compare who else shows up, she said.

“One of my intentions is to be there to make sure we haven’t missed anything so far (in the process),” said Sanders.

So far, based on criteria Airbus has identified, Spokane, Moses Lake and Everett are the only Washington cities that could qualify for the site, she said.

Interest would be extremely keen to land the Airbus plant if Congress OKs the competition and Airbus comes out the winner, said Bill King, who works with the state Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development.

Airbus officials estimate the site would require an investment of at least $600 million. The first phase would be creating an engineering center with about 100 jobs. That would lead to the creation of a tanker assembly site that would employ several hundred people by 2015.

Airbus officials say the site requirements include a 9,000-foot airport runway, room to construct a 1.5 million-square-foot building, and reliable transportation options including access to a deep-water port for moving huge pieces of equipment.

Sanders said Spokane’s transportation solution would emphasize its relative proximity to the Tri-Cities, which provides river access to the Pacific coast.

Another factor desired by Airbus would be a nearby university program with a strong aerospace engineering program. Sanders said that requirement is equally tough on all three Washington cities, since there are no Washington universities now offering an aerospace engineering program.

Though Airbus has begun a mobilization of local-community interest, the final determination will be made by Congress and the administration, officials have said. In the Bush administration’s 2006 defense budget proposal, the Air Force gets about $100 million to research the tanker question. If the administration approves the idea of a competitive bid, the defense department said it would be able to prepare documents sometime in early 2006.

Within a few months, all 50 states will have identified cities to EADS North America as possible contenders for the plant. After that, the company will turn to a Texas-based consulting firm to winnow the group to a smaller list, said Hicks.