French aerospace giant Airbus will join U.S. rival Boeing in cutting production of large jetliners amid sluggish global demand.
Airbus reduced output of its A380 jet from 27 per year to 12 annually last summer, and company officials said last week that it would push back another 12 deliveries of the plane, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Six planes would see deliveries moved from 2017 to 2018, while six more would be shifted from 2018 into 2019.
(Image credit: Airbus)Airlines worldwide are increasingly worried about filling large, expensive jets to capacity, the Journal noted, and the A380 in particular was hampered by technical challenges.
The latest, caused by issues with engines made by Rolls-Royce Holdings, resulted in a delay of deliveries to Emirates Airlines, which followed cancelled A380 orders from Air France-KLM and announcements from Qantas Airways, Malaysia Airlines and Singapore Airlines that it would stop using them either in part or completely.
Airbus officials added that the jet, which first broke even in 2015 — eight years after its debut — would begin losing money again in 2017, a year earlier than previously projected.
Boeing last month announced that it would again trim production of its 777 jetliner and previously cut output of its 747-8.
