STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Eleanor Beardsley reports from Paris.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: Robert Wall, Paris bureau chief for the magazine Aviation Week, says the Airbus desperately wants the tanker contract, and it hopes the offer to build cargo planes in Alabama will strengthen its position.
ROBERT WALL: And on top of that, it sets in with the strategy of Airbus and the parent company, EADS, to put more work in the dollar zone away from the higher cost structure here in Europe.
BEARDSLEY: This week, Airbus CEO Tom Enders went to Alabama to make his proposal and took a swipe at Boeing while he was there.
THOMAS ENDERS: For many years, the production of large commercial aircraft has been a monopoly business in the U.S. An expanded Mobile final assembly facility would re-introduce competition back into the U.S. commercial aircraft sector.
BEARDSLEY: For NPR News, I'm Eleanor Beardsley in Paris.