Airbus warns of more delays

The company will "nearly" manage to deliver 13 of the aircraft this year as planned, the weekly Wirtschaftswoche cited unnamed insiders as saying, but it definitely won't be able to deliver the promised 25 in 2009.

It is also highly questionable "whether we will be able to manage to produce four (A380) aircraft a month as planned in the foreseeable future," the magazine cited its source as saying.

A spokesperson for Airbus contacted by AFP declined to comment, reiterating that the company's chief executive of nine months Thomas Anders was currently conducting a review of the A380 programme.

Airbus, a unit of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. NV (EADSY), delivered the first A380 to Singapore Airlines last October - 18 months late - due to production problems.

Seventeen airlines have so far ordered or committed to ordering 193 A380s, the world's largest passenger airline.

The A380 has been beset by huge delays and cost overruns running into billions of euros, helping to drag EADS into the red and prompting a management shakeup and a major restructuring programme.

- Dow Jones