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For two years Airbus faced a shortage of engines and had to slow jet deliveries. Now engines are arriving fast - but fresh snags mean a Hamburg plant that assembles best-selling jets is having trouble absorbing them, industry sources said. The internal snags have exacerbated delivery delays that leave Airbus with the challenge of delivering 76 single-aisle planes per month in the last quarter, according to consultants Flight Ascend, 9.6% more than its previous record. Airbus is working flat out to maintain this year’s target of 800 total aircraft deliveries needed to meet financial goals and single-aisle assembly lines are its most important cash cow. “They’re late; everyone is mad at them. They’ve been hiding behind the engine problems,” a senior aircraft buyer said, referring to the tendency of supply chains to focus on the most visible laggards without always tackling problems in waiting. Other industry sources say Hamburg may not be the immediate source of the problem, but that this facility has felt the worst impact in Airbus’s global jigsaw of assembly plants because it is introducing a new version of A321 just as production is running faster than ever. That illustrates a wider challenge as planemakers struggle to introduce new models and fix technical issues without pausing record output increases.<br/>

First-class airline service has long been the playground of the fabulously famous and fantastically wealthy, with luxuries ranging from free-flowing Champagne and mountains of caviar in the early years to private cabins with a bed and shower on some carriers today. But after BA in 2000 introduced lie-flat seats in business class for thousands of dollars less than first—an innovation that quickly spread throughout the industry—it was hard to argue that it’s worth the extra cash for a few more inches of legroom and a better wine list. Bookings started to fall sharply as the 2008 financial crisis curbed corporate spending and made public displays of wealth unfashionable, so over the past decade scores of airlines have ripped out some or all of their cushiest and priciest seats. Carriers today say they may have cut too far, especially as the ranks of the super rich continue to expand and the stigma attached to conspicuous consumption has faded. With the global economy back in growth mode and the industry coming off three straight years of fat profits, airlines are reintroducing or revamping first-class cabins at a cost that can exceed $100,000 just to manufacture each seat. Long-haul airlines say charging more than $10,000 for a round-trip ticket in the premium cabin is a profitable way to stand out in an industry that’s come to be dominated by discounters. “First class is developing better than we’d imagined three or four years back,” Lufthansa CEOr Carsten Spohr told staff in a recent briefing. “We’re looking at routes where it makes sense, where we have the customers who want it.” Story has more.<br/>