Airbus hit by new A380 delivery delay

By James Regan and Tim Hepher

FRANKFURT/PARIS (Reuters) - Planemaker Airbus announced another delay in deliveries of its A380 superjumbo on Tuesday, deepening the woes of Europe's biggest industrial project and risking further penalty payments to airlines.

Airbus said it was unable to boost production as quickly as it hoped as it tries to recover from two years of production delays caused by problems in installing the wiring on the world's largest passenger plane.

Airbus now plans 12 instead of 13 deliveries in 2008 and 21 instead of 25 in 2009.

"Details about the new plan, and the further ramp-up and delivery slots in 2010 and the following years, will be discussed with customers in coming weeks," it said in a statement.

It gave no details on the financial impact of the latest delays to the aircraft, already two years behind schedule.

"We are in a four-year recovery program. We have to make some progress but we are not back to square one," Chief Executive Tom Enders told reporters in a conference call.

The announcement followed hints of delays that sent shares in Airbus parent EADS (EAD.PA) down last week, and they dipped only 0.1 percent to 15.72 euros on Tuesday.

It was the fourth time Airbus had announced delays in delivering the 525-seat double-decker plane. But damage to the production schedule was not as severe as some had expected.

Analysts also drew comfort from the fact some of the early planes are thought to have been produced at a loss, meaning any negative impact on earnings would be deferred.

"It's not a big surprise. The financial impact should also be minor but it's really hard to estimate," UniCredit analyst Stefan Halter said.

"Given the number affected -- we are just talking about five planes -- the impact really should be minor.

Airbus commercial director John Leahy said he did not expect airlines to cancel orders as a result of the latest setback. He now faces talks over possible penalty payments and rescheduling with airlines, which are increasingly outspoken about delays.

Tim Clark, the powerful head of Emirates EMAIR.UL -- by far the biggest A380 customer with 58 ordered -- has warned the airline faces "serious damage" from any further delays.

Emirates said on Tuesday the delays would not affect deliveries of the first five planes it expects to get this year.

"We are in dialogue with Airbus to determine the impact on our A380 deliveries in 2009. We have no specific dates or details at this time," an Emirates spokesperson said.