Airbus ‘hopes to deliver up to 80 A350 aircraft in 2017’

PARIS - Reuters

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Airbus tentatively aims to deliver as many as 80 A350 jetliners in 2017, two people familiar with the plans said on Nov. 25.

The target marks a new stage in ambitious plans to raise output of the company’s newest long-haul jet to 10 a month in 2018, but depends mainly on how successful suppliers will be in curbing delays in cabin equipment.

An Airbus spokesman declined to comment on the provisional thinking on deliveries for 2017, which would equate to production of just under 7 aircraft a month.

Airbus is expected to give details of its 2017 delivery plans in February.

Speaking at an event to mark the first flight of the large A350-1000 variant on Nov. 24, Airbusplanemaking chief Fabrice Bregier said he was more optimistic than before about reaching a target of at least 50 A350 deliveries in 2016.

Airbus delivered the 35th airplane of the year on Nov. 24.

At the same time, Airbus aims to swiftly increase deliveries of the smaller A320neo, which have been held back by delays in the supply of engines from U.S.-based Pratt & Whitney.

Programs chief Didier Evrard told Reuters on Nov. 24 the supply chain had improved but remained under scrutiny.

Also key to the ramp-up is the amount of outstanding work that needs to be done later in the assembly process than scheduled, a drag on time and costs that is often caused by missing or defective parts.
Bregier said on Nov. 24 the amount of A350-900 outstanding work had fallen to a “low level.”
 
Airbus plans to deliver the first of the larger A350-1000 variant “hopefully a bit less than year from now,” well within the target of second-half 2017, following an accelerated program of flight tests, Bregier told reporters.

It aims for just under 12 months of flight tests, compared with 14.5 for the earlier A350-900 model.

Meanwhile, Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. (TAI) made its first delivery of A350-1000 aileron set to Airbus in in 2015. It was the result of a contract that was signed nearly two years ago as an addition to the contract for A350-900 Program between the two companies to design and manufacture the aileron for the Airbus A350 by TAI.