Airbus cuts delivery goal, slows ramp-up on supply-chain woe

Airbus cut its jetliner-delivery goal and slowed a ramp-up in production of its best-selling narrow-body model as supply-chain issues afflicting everything from engines to microchips show no sign of easing. The world’s biggest planemaker now aims to hand over around 700 aircraft in 2022, compared with an earlier target of 720, it said in a statement Wednesday. A build rate of 65 a month for the A320 single-aisle family previously targeted for next summer won’t now be achieved until early 2024. The revisions shouldn’t hit Airbus’s financial performance in the short term, with the company reiterating full-year estimates for earnings and cash, but indicate significant challenges in boosting output in an economic environment beset by labor and materials shortages. A slower increase in A320 production also means a five-year order backlog may take longer to clear, impacting existing clients and potentially hurting the firm’s ability to win new business. Airbus posted adjusted earnings before interest and tax of E2.64b for the first half, 2% lower than a year earlier. Analysts had forecast a profit of E2.55b, based on data compiled by Bloomberg.<br/>