Airbus single-aisle output could revive
Airbus single-aisle output, running at 36 aircraft a month, will be reduced to 34 a month (at the start of final assembly) by October.
Despite pressure from some corners for further single-aisle cuts, executive vice-president programmes Tom Williams says Airbus is "pretty comfortable" with the adjustments it has already made, based on its "watchtower process" that monitors each customer and each delivery two years ahead. "Our visibility over the next six months is pretty good, but beyond that it gets a bit tougher," he says.
"Into next year, we've still kept our cushion with overbooking [of slots], more in the second half of the year, so today we're pretty comfortable."
Chief salesman John Leahy says Airbus aims to get through the downturn with flat production rates rather than a boom/bust realignment of output. "We can get through this crisis if airlines just do aircraft retirements a little bit faster during the 2009-10 period," he adds.
Leahy says that although single-aisle output is being wound back, it could soon be heading the other way. "We had planned to go to rate 40, and I think that sometime by late 2010 or 2011, you'll see us back at rate 40 again."
Williams agrees, saying that Airbus is "looking at scenarios" to take the rate back up. He says the airframer met all its key suppliers in Toulouse this month "to give them as much visibility as possible of our view of the marketplace over the next 12-24 months to try to avoid the situation where they are trying to second-guess what's going on".
