Airbus Says A380 Deliveries Delayed Three More Months

Toulouse, France (AHN) - Airbus, the world's largest commercial aircraft maker, on Tuesday announced additional delays of up to three months for A380 deliveries due in 2009 and 2010.

In a conference call, CEO Tom Enders told Bloomberg that Airbus cut A380 delivery targets for the next three years due to a failure to automate production. He added that wiring difficulties have forced Airbus to assemble part of the cabin by hand.

According to Enders, Airbus can deliver 12 A380s this year instead of the 13 planned; 21 in 2009 rather than 25, and 30 to 40 planes in 2010 instead of 42. The CEO told Dow Jones that Airbus' goal is to increase A380 production to four planes a month from the current output of one 525-seater plane every month.

The A380, the world's biggest passenger plane, has been plagued by production delays. The aircraft maker reasoned that the time and resources needed to build the first 25 planes have been ``higher than expected.''

Bloomberg said the delays stemmed from the time-consuming manual installation of 300 miles of cabin wiring.

The company said the first 25 A380s are being outfitted by hand at Airbus's Toulouse headquarters. Starting with the 26th plane, however, Airbus is aiming to use an automated process.

In total, 16 airlines have placed firm orders for 192 A380 superjumbo jets costing $300 million each. Four have already been delivered to Singapore Airlines.