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Airbus Sept deliveries seen well below same month last

year

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Cirium Ascend analyst casts doubt on annual delivery

target

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Flat production heightens focus on saving cash, sources

say

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Airbus lowered target in July, aims for 'around 770'

deliveries

By Tim Hepher

PARIS, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Airbus deliveries

are closing September at a slower pace than a year ago, raising

increased questions over its ability to hit a revised annual

target, analysts and industry sources said.

In July, Airbus issued a profit warning and lowered its

full-year delivery target to 770 aircraft from 800, blaming

shortages of engines and other items. It pushed back an

underlying production goal by a year to 2027.

Delays in deliveries and the ramp-up in production of core

narrowbody jets have triggered growing impatience inside Airbus,

with Chief Executive Guillaume Faury voicing frustration over

broadly flat production, people familiar with the company said.

Airbus has delivered around 30 aircraft to date in

September, bringing the total so far this year to some 477, data

provided to Reuters by consultancy Cirium Ascend showed.

If Airbus continues at this pace, then it could close the

month with some 36 deliveries or 483 since the start of the year

- below 488 seen at the nine-month stage a year ago, it showed.

Airbus delivered 55 jets in September last year.

"They have been running very close to 2023 cumulative

numbers all year, which further supports the potentially

evolving hypothesis that they won't make 770," said Rob Morris,

head of global consultancy at Cirium Ascend.

An Airbus spokesperson referred back to its latest guidance.

Airbus has a habit of pulling off surprises in the fourth

quarter, though supply chains and internal production problems

have increasingly weighed on its ability to catch up.

"Given the performance so far this year it feels as if the

risk is more to the downside than the upside," Agency Partners

analyst Sash Tusa said, adding concerns remained over the

underlying production ramp-up beyond 2024.

Airbus has said it is targeting "around" 770 deliveries,

meaning it could rely on that margin of tolerance to avoid

another official guidance cut that could be seen as a blow to

its senior management, analysts said.

Airbus has been producing an average of around 50 of its

benchmark A320neo narrowbody jets a month, barely changed since

a year ago based on the tracking of test flights, Morris said.

The recent failure to make significant progress towards a

medium-term target of 75 a month has ratcheted up internal

pressure to preserve cash as Airbus stockpiles inventory to

preserve flexibility, sources familiar with the matter said.

Airbus in July launched a belt-tightening and performance

improvement plan called LEAD! as planemaking CEO Christian

Scherer warned staff that unit costs were rising faster than

unit revenues.

The first objective of the plan is to "save 2024 in terms of

deliveries," he said in a July memo seen by Reuters, adding it

would "turn over every stone" and examine costs without taboo.