Does Northrop Grumman's decision mean the company's relationship with Mobile is finished? What about Mobile's future with EADS, and aerospace in general? The answer is "no" according to the mayor and a top business official.

Mayor Sam Jones said in a phone interview from Arkansas Monday that, "We still think we'll build wide body aircraft in Mobile."

He said don't write off Mobile as a major player in the aerospace industry.

Jones said, "We have an excellent relationship with Airbus and EADS, and I think there are some opportunities there which we want to explore. They build commercial aircraft and they want to build them in the United States and there's no better place than Mobile, Alabama, and we want to look at that." The Vice President of Economic Development for the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce echoes those thoughts. Troy Wayman said the city has a strong relationship with Northrop Grumman and EADS.

Wayman said, "There may be a possibility that other good things could come out of this with our relationship with them. We're going to leverage this relationship as much as we can, and, hopefully, this will lead to something else." Donna Clarke is the manager of the Gone Fishin Catfish Restaurant near Brookley. She's still hoping for a major employer there.
Clarke said, "We do get a lot of people from that area, and it would be a great benefit to us having that out there. That way, it would bring more customers in to us." And economic leaders believe her hopes could be realized. Wayman said, "There aren't many places in the United States that have the assets that we do, in the length of the runway, and the available industrial property there, so we'll continue to market that land."