By Sabela Ojea
Airbus said it won't be meeting its annual targets for the year, including the number of commercial aircraft it planned to deliver, after its space-systems management team identified further commercial and technical challenges.
The European plane maker on Monday said that it will also book charges of about 900 million euros ($962.5 million) in the first half of 2024 following an extensive review of its space-systems programs.
Airbus expects to end the year delivering 770 commercial aircraft, down from a prior outlook of 800 commercial aircraft deliveries a couple of months ago.
The company said its A320 ramp-up trajectory has been adjusted to reflect specific supply-chain challenges in a degraded operating environment, and that its target production rate of 75 A320 Family aircraft a month is now set to be reached a year later, in 2027.
Airbus also forecasts adjusted earnings before interest and taxes of about 5.5 billion euros, below the 6.5 billion euros to 7 billion euros expected previously.
Airbus's free cash flow before customer financing expectations have also been lowered to 3.5 billion euros from 4 billion euros, the company said.
The first-half expenses are mainly related to updated assumptions on schedules, workload, sourcing, risks and costs over the lifetime of certain telecommunications, navigation and observation programs, Airbus said.
Airbus' first-half results are set to be published on July 30.
Write to Sabela Ojea at sabela.ojea@wsj.com; @sabelaojeaguix
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
06-24-24 1343ET