Airbus suffered another blow to its efforts to restore its credibility yesterday when it confirmed further delays to the delivery schedule for its leading model, the A380 superjumbo.
It is the fourth delay to the schedule but less dramatic than previous ones and shares in EADS, the Airbus owner, dropped only slightly today ahead of its first-quarter results.
Tom Enders, Airbus chief executive, said: "This is unfortunately not the first delay and, as CEO, I have to say I regret this very much." He added: "We are not talking about a catastrophic scenario."
The European plane-maker said the steep increase in production planned two years ago could not be fully effected, with the 13 deliveries planned for this year cut to 12 and the 25 scheduled for 2009 reduced to 21. Executives said the planned delivery of 45 planes in 2010 could be reduced to between 30 and 40.
The latest problems, exacerbated by a shortage of engineers in Europe, have caused a delay in the switch to automated or serial production from the current method of individual assembly. Four superjumbos have been delivered so far to Singapore Airlines, two years behind schedule, but the aim is to deliver four a month of the current 192 A380s on order.
Airbus, which plunged deeply into the red last year, said it could not yet quantify the financial impact of the delays which could lead buyers such as Emirates, the superjumbo's biggest customer, to demand hefty compensation. Analysts said the cost could be between €70m (£56m) and "several hundred million".
The delays come on top of last week's news that Airbus had suspended talks with a French components-maker, Latécoère, to buy two of its French plants and similar hiccups have arisen with the sale of three German plants. But GKN, the British engineering group, is said to remain on course to take over parts of Filton, near Bristol, later this year.
Delays to the delivery of modern aircraft are becoming more frequent as manufacturers switch to more complex materials such as composites and more sophisticated technology.
Boeing, which has won more than 900 orders for its new 787 Dreamliner, has already announced three delays in delivering the long-haul jet. The latest estimate is delays of up to 30 months, costing Boeing potentially billions of dollars.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008
