Airbus eases pressure on suppliers but keeps output goals - sources

Airbus is quietly relaxing pressure on suppliers to commit to a sharp output hike to 75 narrow-body jets a month by mid-decade, amid growing doubts over the ability of battered supply chains to meet the deadline, industry sources said. Officially, Airbus continues to target output of 75 narrow-body jets a month in 2025, after an interim target of 65 jets slipped last month. It is poised to reaffirm both output goals at an investor meeting later this week, industry sources said. But as more suppliers sound the alarm over parts and labour shortages, Airbus has privately recognised the challenges of reaching the higher target by 2025 even as it sticks firmly to an earlier goal of 65 a month, up from 50 or so now, they said. Requests for detailed plans of how suppliers will get to 75 are "going quiet," a senior aerospace source told Reuters. In July, Airbus pushed back its interim target for 65 A320-family jets a month by six months to early 2024, citing "supply chain challenges". At the same time, Chief Executive Guillaume Faury said Airbus continued to aim for 75 a month in 2025. "The A320-family monthly production target of 75 for 2025 remains unchanged," an Airbus spokesperson said on Wednesday. The head of the world's largest aerospace supplier, Raytheon Technologies CE Greg Hayes, last week called into question this end-target. "If you take a look at the projections for Airbus, we think that Airbus by 2025 will be at rate 65 (a month). And Guillaume (Faury) might say rate 75, but we think rate 65 is doable," he told a Morgan Stanley conference.<br/>