Airbus to Miss Plane-Delivery Annual Goals, Citing Technical Challenges

By Sabela Ojea

Airbus said it won't be meeting its annual targets for the year, including the number of commercial aircraft it planned to deliver, after its space-systems management team identified further commercial and technical challenges.

The European plane maker on Monday said that it will also book charges of about 900 million euros ($962.5 million) in the first half of 2024 following an extensive review of its space-systems programs.

Airbus expects to end the year delivering 770 commercial aircraft, down from a prior outlook of 800 commercial aircraft deliveries a couple of months ago.

The company said its A320 ramp-up trajectory has been adjusted to reflect specific supply-chain challenges in a degraded operating environment, and that its target production rate of 75 A320 Family aircraft a month is now set to be reached a year later, in 2027.

Airbus also forecasts adjusted earnings before interest and taxes of about 5.5 billion euros, below the 6.5 billion euros to 7 billion euros expected previously.

Airbus's free cash flow before customer financing expectations have also been lowered to 3.5 billion euros from 4 billion euros, the company said.

The first-half expenses are mainly related to updated assumptions on schedules, workload, sourcing, risks and costs over the lifetime of certain telecommunications, navigation and observation programs, Airbus said.

Airbus' first-half results are set to be published on July 30.

Write to Sabela Ojea at sabela.ojea@wsj.com; @sabelaojeaguix

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 24, 2024 13:43 ET (17:43 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.