Airbus Cuts A380 Delivery Target Again

Airbus cut its 2009 delivery target for the A380 superjumbo on Wednesday, the latest in a series of downgrades, this time blaming the economic crisis and deferral requests from airline customers.

Airbus now expects to deliver 14 of the double-decker aircraft, down from its previous goal of 18, it said in a statement.

The planemaker also gave a target for next year of more than 20 deliveries. Subsequent delivery and production rates depended on airline demand and customer financing availability, Airbus said.

"Due to the current economic and aviation crisis and following specific customer requests for deferrals, Airbus is adapting its A380 aircraft delivery schedule for 2009/2010," the planemaker said.

The A380 is over two years behind schedule because of wiring installation problems, which Airbus has blamed for previous cuts to its delivery target. The company had reaffirmed its A380 schedule for this year as recently as a month ago.

Wednesday's announcement showed airline customers who had previously been compensated for production delays are now being forced themselves to negotiate later delivery times because of the crisis hitting the aviation industry.

Dubai airline Emirates, the biggest A380 customer with 58 on order, said on Tuesday, however, that it was sticking to its USD$55 billion order book.

Airbus said it would take "mitigating actions" against the negative effects of the new A380 plan on free cash flow, but said there would be no significant impact on earnings before interest and tax.

The planemaker confirmed its plan to cut the production rate of its A320 aircraft family to 34 a month from 36 from October and said development of the new A350 XWB continued at "full speed".

Airbus also confirmed its plan to deliver about the same number of aircraft overall this year as in 2008, which was a record year for the company with 483 deliveries.