© Reuters. Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury speaks during a visit of German Economy and Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck at Airbus research facilities in Hamburg, Germany, January 18, 2022. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File Photo
PARIS (Reuters) -Europe’s Airbus on Friday gave the strongest hint yet that it plans to launch a bigger version of its 110 to 130-seat A220 passenger jet while pledging to act only at the right time.
A stretched version of the lightweight Canadian-designed airplane makes a lot of sense, “but we don’t want to be right too early”, Chief Executive Guillaume Faury told investors.
The A220 was developed by Canada’s Bombardier (OTC:BDRBF) in a bid to break into the main part of the jet market but struggled to keep up with the investments needed to challenge Airbus and U.S. rival Boeing (NYSE:BA) and Bombardier sold the project to Airbus in 2018.
Airbus has in turn faced higher-than-expected costs on the loss-making programme but Chief Financial Officer Dominik Asam told investors it was on course to break even by mid-decade.
He reaffirmed Airbus production forecasts for larger A320neo jets. Airbus reported on Wednesday that Airbus was easing pressure on suppliers to reach the end-target of 75 a month by 2025 but was sticking for now to the headline goals.
Both executives were speaking at the company’s first formal Capital Markets Day for investors in four years.
Source: Reuters