Delta Air Lines debuts first Airbus A321 made entirely in the US

(Courtesy Delta Air Lines)

Delta received its first American-made A321 in Mobile, Alabama, on Tuesday.

The aircraft is the 15th A321 assembled by the Airbus plant in Mobile since it opened in September 2015.

Twelve of the American-produced aircraft have already been delivered to JetBlue, American Airlines and Sprint, according to Airways Magazine.

With final production lines in Germany, France, China and Alabama, Airbus expects to be able to produce 52 aircraft per month by 2018 and 60 aircraft per month by 2020. The Alabama plant will only produce Airbus’s narrowbody planes for customers in North America.

Delta received its first A321 in March of this year. The previous models had been produced in Airbus’s plant in Hamburg, Germany. The A321 has a capacity of 192 passengers and a range of 2,565 miles. The new planes are meant to replace Delta’s aging MD-88 fleet.

Delta placed an order for 45 A321 aircraft in 2013 and then expanded the order to 82 in April of this year, after delivery of its first. So far the airline has received 11 A321 planes.

The remaining aircraft will be delivered through 2019.