Earlier this week, the State of Florida was ranked first in the nation for overall aviation manufacturing attractiveness by ProcewaterhouseCoopers LLP in a document entitled "Aviation Second Gold Age: Can the US aircraft industry maintain leadership?" The recent ranking cited Florida's quality talent pool, the strength of its industry and low cost of doing business in naming our state first in the nation.
With a large military presence providing a highly skilled workforce of more than 7,500 individuals currently employed by aviation/aerospace in Northwest Florida, our region factors heavily into the state's overall ranking.
Along with our regional economic development partners at the Greater Pensacola Chamber and the City of Pensacola, Escambia County has been working to actively recruit Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers related to the construction of the new Airbus plant in Mobile. A delegation of local leaders recently Hamburg, Germany, to educate themselves on aviation manufacturing first-hand at one of Airbus' European aircraft-manufacturing facilities. The recent announcement of a committment by ST Aerospace to locate a new facility at Pensacola International Airport supports the potential success of these efforts.
