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Engine delays are the main delivery bottleneck for

single-aisle

planes-executive

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A350 assembly is being slowed by delays in receiving

lavatories

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Wider supply chain pressures have 'improved significantly'

By Tim Hepher

PARIS, June 12 (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.