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By Tim Hepher

PARIS (Reuters) -Airbus is delaying the arrival of a freighter version of its A350 jet by up to a year and faces hurdles in increasing output of its wider A350 aircraft family in coming months as it wrestles with supply problems, industry sources told Reuters.

The delay in the industry's latest dedicated cargo aircraft could be announced as early as Thursday when the European planemaker posts annual results, they said, asking not to be named because the discussions remain confidential.

Airbus declined to comment on the schedule for the freighter, which is currently due to enter service in 2026.

The setback to the A350F comes as Airbus also struggles to increase output of existing A350 passenger jets, particularly due to ongoing delays in the arrival of fuselage parts from Spirit AeroSystems, industry sources said.

Those delays could effectively place an informal cap on A350 production through the rest of this year, with Airbus struggling to increase A350-family production above current rates of around six jets a month, the sources said.

However, Airbus is still expected to stick to a published target of hitting 12 A350s a month during 2028, including both passenger and freighter models, they added.

An Airbus spokesperson declined comment on production but referred back to comments given with its nine-month results in October, when Airbus said it was keeping the 2028 target while "actively managing specific supply chain challenges" in 2025.

Spirit AeroSystems declined comment.

Despite friction over trade, freighter planes are in high demand as major cargo carriers in the Gulf and elsewhere look to renew their fleets and fill a gap left by delays in certifying programmes to convert passenger jets into cargo planes.

SPIRIT BREAK-UP

The potential freighter delay is the latest evidence of disruption in global supply chains since the pandemic.

Spirit AeroSystems is at the centre of a rare carve-up of its operations between Airbus and its arch-rival Boeing as the two planemakers act to rescue a critical supplier, which has voiced uncertainty over its future in the absence of the deal.

Boeing agreed last year to buy back its former subsidiary in a deal that hinges on Airbus taking on the supplier's loss-making Europe-focused activities, including a North Carolina plant that makes a central fuselage section for the A350.

Reuters reported in October that supplies to Airbus of the A350 fuselage sections from Spirit's Kinston plant were running behind schedule and Airbus later confirmed concerns over the pace of the ramp-up in 2025. 

Now, it looks increasingly doubtful whether any significant increase in output of the long-haul A350 family will be possible at all in 2025 and possibly part of 2026, the sources said.

Airbus halved A350 output to five a month during the pandemic and partially restored it to six a month in 2023, since when it has struggled to stay above that level, sources said.

In January this year, Airbus delivered two A350s.    

(Reporting by Tim HepherEditing by Tomasz Janowski and Chizu Nomiyama)