PARIS, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Airbus has seen a

marked improvement in confidence and performance from its

suppliers, all of whom are ready to support the company's target

of increasing deliveries by 7% to some 820 jets this year, a

senior company official said on Monday.

The European planemaker is also on its way towards a

longer-term goal of increasing underlying output of narrow-body

jets to 75 a month in 2027, Florent Massou dit Labaquere,

executive vice-president for operations, told reporters.

Massou was speaking as the world's largest planemaker

prepared to inaugurate

a second U.S. assembly line for A320neo-family jets in

Mobile, Alabama, later on Monday. Airbus also plans a similar

expansion in China in coming weeks.

He said the expanded network of 10 assembly lines would

be sufficient to meet production targets, despite a shift in

demand toward the larger A321neo, which requires more time to

build.

In 2021, Airbus set out plans to almost double output of

narrow-body jets from 40 a month to 75 by 2025. It has kept the

target but gradually pushed the date back by two years due to

industry-wide

bottlenecks and delays

.

Industry sources have said Airbus struggled over that

time to persuade some suppliers to step up investments for plans

that may not materialise, as targets were repeatedly extended.

But Massou indicated suppliers were more upbeat.

"I've seen a completely different picture with a lot of

suppliers that understand where we are, that witness the

stability we had in terms of planning for the last few months,"

he said.

Massou said Airbus aims to complete the carve-up with

Boeing ( BA ) of supplier Spirit AeroSystems ( SPR ) by the end

of year. "The deal is progressing; we expect to close in Q4," he

told reporters.