Posted By Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on January 15, 2025
LONDON (Reuters) -The chief executive of Airbus said he was confident the company would reach its target of manufacturing 75 single-aisle aircraft a month in 2027, given its investment, focus on its supply chain and the hiring of people ahead of time.
"By 2027 we will be with the capacity rate 75 fully in place, and that's something we are very confident of," CEO Guillaume Faury told reporters on Wednesday.
The European planemaker had in July cut its annual delivery target to "around 770" aircraft from 800 after Faury said he had been "blind-sided" by a drop in supplies from enginemaker CFM.
But he called it a short-term issue that affected deliveries last year and would affect them this year but not beyond.
"The CFM engine issues are absolutely not a problem to the rate 75," he said.
As production ramps up towards target, Faury said Airbus was trying to ensure that each supplier has a plan in place to overcome potential issues.
"We are going at the pace of the slowest of our suppliers," he said.
Asked about whether Airbus was considering raising production beyond 75 per month in the years after 2027, he said that was not on the cards for now.
"The plan is to go to 75 and stay at 75 for some years," he said.
"This is a prudent level of production in terms of being sure that the demand will remain higher than the supply for quite a while."
(Reporting by Sarah Young, Writing by Paul Sandle; editing by Michael Holden and Hugh Lawson)
