SLEIGHT OF HAND SECURES TARGET

AIRBUS will rely on a plane it acquired in July to bolster deliveries and fulfil its pledge to produce 800 aircraft in 2018. The company stuck with the target it set at the beginning of the year, but only after adding in 18 A220 aircraft – the model it purchased from Bombardier. In earlier forecasts, the European plane maker had explicitly excluded the latest member of its line-up. The shift, announced with third quarter results, highlights a production struggle that’s vexed Airbus all year, starting with an engine-related halt in production of its best-selling A320neo narrow-body. Now interiors and other issues are slowing output. The results “appear to be at worst robust,” Sandy Morris, an analyst with Jefferies Group in London, said. |