Airbus’ A380 troubles to continue

12/01/10 19:48 CET

corporate

| |

The A380 superjumbo continues to create problems for Airbus and its parent company EADS.

It has warned the double-decker plane will be a financial drain on the company for years to come as it announced full-year revenue that was down 3.6 percent.

Just 10 A380s were delivered last year, down from the original target was 18.

Airbus did beat US rival Boeing in deliveries and orders.

It delivered a record 498 planes last year, up from 483 in 2008 and said it anticipated a similar number of deliveries this year.

The fall in revenues was blamed on the weaker dollar.

Chief Executive Louis Gallois told a news conference: “EADS demonstrated its resilience. The volume of our sales can be estimated at around 42 billion euros, a bit less than in 2008, not in volume but only because of the dollar effects. More aeroplanes delivered in 2009 than in 2008 – who would have believed that at the beginning of the year?”

As for the much delayed and vastly over budget A400M military transport plane, Airbus said it was looking for “very significant contributions” from European governments to keep the project going.