Engine makers on track with recovery plan for A320 engines, Airbus says

[June 14, 2018]   HAMBURG (Reuters) - Engine makers Pratt & Whitney and CFM are on track with a recovery plan after delays left Airbus <AIR.PA> having to park dozens of aircraft without engines, an executive at the European planemaker said on Thursday.

Logo of Airbus is pictured at the Airbus A380 final assembly line at Airbus headquarters in Blagnac near Toulouse, France, March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo

"We have agreed on a plan with both of them to catch up with production, both are now hitting the targets and are on track, which is good news," Klaus Roewe, head of the A320 jet family program, told reporters in Hamburg as Airbus inaugurated a new assembly line for the best-selling single-aisle plane.

The delays in getting engines from United Technologies <UTX.N> unit Pratt & Whitney and CFM International, co-owned by Safran <SAF.PA> and General Electric <GE.N>, have left Airbus lagging behind the pace it needs to reach its full-year delivery goal.

With jets left parked at its production sites while they wait for engines, Roewe said Airbus would have reduced production had it known the extent of the problems.

"Did we intend to build so many airframes to park them? For sure not," Roewe said. "If we had known the size of the technical and industrial problems we might have slowed down production."

He said Airbus would not be parking aircraft by the end of the year, but would still be in arrears in terms of deliveries.

(Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Mark Potter)

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