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A380 facing more delays, paring back of deliveries
Airbus will scale back deliveries of the A380 superjumbo for a third time and reduce as much as 2 billion euros ($2.5 billion) in costs by cutting jobs and shifting production, three people with knowledge of the plans said.

The Boeing rival, based in Toulouse, France, probably can deliver just four A380s next year, less than half predicted in June, because of delays in installing wiring, said the people, who asked not to be identified before an announcement.

Airbus Chief Executive Christian Streiff presented a plan Friday to the board of parent European Aeronautic, Defence (EADS), the people said. No final decisions were made.

Airbus, facing late-delivery penalties and rising costs on the A380, may eliminate jobs through early retirement and by moving production of the A320 to Hamburg, Germany, from Toulouse, the people said. "The only way Airbus can get out of its current problems is by reducing costs," said Doug McVitie, managing director at Arran Aerospace, a Dinan, France-based consultant. "If they consolidate narrow-body planes in one location and wide-body planes in another, then you have two separate cost centers. That makes sense."
So that when they kill the A380 project they can shut down Toulouse. Heh.
Delays of the A380 have angered customers and sparked the exit of two top executives. EADS shares have plunged 29 percent this year.

The latest delays may cut 1 billion euros from EADS's earnings, said Olivier Esnou, an analyst at Exane BNP Paribas in Paris. Slowness installing the 200 miles of wiring in each A380 already will cut 2 billion euros from EADS earnings between 2007 and 2010, the company said in June.
One would think that the wiring of the airplane, which goodness knows shouldn't see any shortcuts, is something they could have budgeted properly.
Airbus offered too many options: The reported reason for the delay in solving the wiring headache is that Airbus offered every airline a different set of features for premium seats and inflight entertainment. That problem was worsened by the peculiar way an A380 is built in two nations. Parts of the A380 hull are built in Hamburg, Germany, then the twin-deck A380 plane is assembled in Toulouse, France and flown back to Hamburg to receive its cabin interior.
Until now, Airbus has assembled the 150-seat A320 aircraft, a single-aisle plane, in Toulouse. The other aircraft in that series — the 107-seat A318, the 124-seat A319 and the 185-seat A321 — have been assembled in Hamburg, Germany. All Airbus wide-body planes, which include the twin-jet A330, the four-engine A340, and the A380, are assembled in Toulouse.
Posted by: Steve White 2006-10-03
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=167498