Airbus cuts A380 costs by shifting overheads to A320 programme

Airbus is cutting costs on its A380 superjumbo partly by redeploying some of its overheads to the expanding A320 programme, Chief Operating Officer Tom Williams said on Monday.

For example, a fourth assembly line for the narrowbody A320neo, due to be created in Hamburg, will use a building previously used for the A380, he told an annual media briefing.

Airbus is urgently seeking to reduce the A380’s costs to maintain a recently achieved breakeven level, as weak sales put pressure on deliveries of the world’s largest airliner.

Williams reiterated that Airbus planned to deliver around 650 aircraft in 2016 despite a slow start to the year for the A320neo and A350, the company’s newest models.

Plans to deliver more than 50 A350s this year, and to increase A320 family production to 60 a month by mid-2019, are “very large challenges,” Williams told reporters.

Source: Reuters