EADS’ Airbus announced that they will be slowing production as airlines have been deferring and canceling orders due to the economic downturn. Airbus said they will be reducing the production rate on their A32X of aircraft by 2 (to 34 from 36). Instead of increasing the pace for the A330/340 series, as planned, they will keep the rate as it is at 8.5 a month. One thing that they’re not cutting is jobs, “at least at this point.”
Airbus CEO Tom Enders said, “We reached record production rates in late 2008, but now we see a drop of air traffic in most regions. Many airlines are taking capacity out of the market. I do not exclude further production cuts if the need arises.” That might be a little chilling for some Airbus employees. Remember, Boeing announced their 10,000 cuts not too long ago; will Airbus follow suit? I guess we’ll have to let time move on and answer that question for us.
Airbus said that they plan on staying on-target for 2009, attempting to near-meet last year’s number: 483 deliveries. I don’t think that will be the problem for Airbus, but I do think that Airbus will receive a number of deferrals and cancellations in the coming months – especially from many aching non-U.S. carriers. I suspect that a number of those international carriers will be European based.
Recently, Air France reported that they may defer one or two A380s soon, but nothing has been officially announced.
Overall, Airbus looks to be in tip-top shape. The forthcoming years look bright for both Airbus and Boeing, as many carriers update their fleet to alleviate high fuel costs (when they come back).
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