Airbus sees no new output rises

HAMBURG: The operations chief of Europe's Airbus on Monday dampened expectations that the planemaker would keep raising output on top of plans already announced.

Airbus plans to raise production of its new A350 wide-body jet to 10 a month in 2018 from 14 for the whole of last year.

It also plans to carry out a model switch in its best-selling A320 family, while also increasing total A320 output from around 46 a month now to a record 60 a month by mid-2019.The company´s sales chief has called for higher A350 production to boost sales and has raised the possibility of increasing A320 output as high as 63 a month.

But Chief Operations Officer Tom Williams told an annual media briefing that the company was not seriously studying raising output any higher than already announced.

Airbus has faced greater problems than it expected in its supply chain as it introduces its newest jets.

Williams said Airbus would meet its target for more than 650 deliveries this year, but only by bringing forward deliveries of the current ´A320ceo´ version to meet a gap in deliveries of the newer ´A320neo´ due to engine delays.

"We are using the flexibility we have on ceos to offset some of our challenges on neos," Williams said.