Airbus hit by new A380 delivery delay

By Michael Shields and Tim Hepher

FRANKFURT/PARIS (Reuters) - Planemaker Airbus announced another delay in deliveries of its A380 superjumbo on Tuesday, deepening the woes of Europe's biggest industrial project and risking further penalties with unhappy airlines.

Airbus said it was unable to boost production as quickly as it hoped as it tries to recover from two years of production delays caused by problems in installing the wiring on the world's largest passenger plane.

"As a result, Airbus plans now for 12 (instead of 13) deliveries in 2008 and 21 (instead of 25) in 2009. Details about the new plan and the further ramp-up and delivery slots in 2010 and the following years will be discussed with customers in the coming weeks," it said in a statement.

It gave no details on the financial impact of the latest delays for the world's biggest passenger airliner, which is already two years behind schedule.

"The extent of the additional costs will be influenced by the actual production and delivery scenario. This will follow discussions with the customers and a more precise evaluation of the implications of the new delivery schedule for 2010 deliveries and beyond," it said.

The announcement sent shares in Airbus parent EADS down 0.6 percent to 15.65 euros.

It was the fourth time Airbus had announced delays in delivering the 525-seat double-decker plane. But the damage to the production schedule was not as severe as some had expected.

"It's not a big surprise. The financial impact should also be minor but it's really hard to estimate," UniCredit analyst Stefan Halter said. "Given the number of affected planes -- we are just talking about five planes -- the impact really should be minor.