Airbus can hit delivery goal despite delays, jetmaking CEO says

By Tim Hepher

PARIS (Reuters) -Airbus is "cautiously hopeful" that it can meet a 2025 target of 820 deliveries despite bottlenecks that have left nearly 40 completed airframes parked at its factories waiting for engines, the CEO of its core planemaking business said.

While overall supply chains have "improved significantly," bottlenecks remain in the supply of CFM engines for single-aisles and cabin interiors for wide-body jets, with lavatories joining the list of delays, Christian Scherer said.

"We haven't changed our (delivery) guidance. I caution you not to extrapolate too much from monthly numbers," Scherer told reporters, following a recent spate of monthly declines in deliveries compared to last year.

"There is a gradual increase in output of engines that we get from CFM. The reason we have not changed our outlook for the year is because we believe that between now and the end of the year we will get the engines," he said.

"So it is a gradual increase - a little behind the curve at the moment...but we are cautiously hopeful that it can be done".

Co-owned by GE Aerospace and France's Safran, CFM supplies more than half of the engines used on the best-selling Airbus A320neo family, competing with alternative engines from Pratt & Whitney. CFM also exclusively supplies the Boeing 737 MAX with a different engine variant.

"We have nearly 40 gliders parked across our system," Scherer said, using the planemaker's nickname for planes that are otherwise complete but unable to be delivered to airlines as they wait for their engines, which are sold separately.

CFM could not immediately be reached for comment. Its top executives have said it has seen improvements in its own supply chain and it is poised to recover from a slow start to the year.

On underlying jet production, a barometer for supply chains, Scherer said Airbus was on its way towards a goal of assembling 75 A320neo-family jets a month in 2027. Most analysts remain cautious about when the already delayed goal can be reached.

"On single-aisle (A320neo-family) we are on track to do that (75 a month) and we are just cruising past 60 (a month). We are trending in the right direction into the 60s," Scherer said.

Airbus rarely discusses detailed monthly production goals in public, having dropped an interim target of 65 a month in 2023. Reuters reported in January that Airbus was closing in on production of 60 jets a month, around pre-COVID levels.

Scherer was speaking during briefings on Airbus market forecasts and products ahead of the Paris Airshow next week.

Airline demand for jets remains "very strong," he said.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Jamie Freed)