Tell Me, Airliner Manufacturers... Do You Feel Lucky?

Responding to some media reports referring to future Airbus' deliveries or production schedules, Airbus has published some comments about its outlook for the next few years.

• 2003: As repeatedly stated during the past weeks and months, Airbus expects to deliver 300 airliners in 2003, in spite of the succession of crisis that have affected the air travel industry since the second half of 2001.
• 2004: For next year, Airbus is not yet in the position to provide firm figures. As recently and publicly indicated by Noel Forgeard, President and CEO, Airbus foresees for the time being a level of deliveries which would be in the same order of magnitude as in 2003.
• 2005: As anticipated by several industrial sources, a market recovery in terms of deliveries can be envisaged in two years from now. However, it is even more premature to predict at this stage a reliable delivery level for 2005.

Airbus notes that, "The figures reported by a few media today are based on working documents that need to be established, at the various levels of the organization, in order to monitor consistently the industry cycles and allow the Airbus teams, suppliers and other stakeholders to plan ahead. Such working documents include internal working assumptions, constantly re-adjusted, and often refer to specific phases of the industrial process rather than to actual global deliveries."

FMI: www.airbus.com