Boeing and Airbus may have to cut production by up to 35 percent by mid-2010 or risk having to finance jet sales themselves, according to the chief executive of the planemakers' biggest customer, Reuters reported.
"We would not be surprised if both Airbus and Boeing may have to cut production 20-35 percent by the middle of 2010," International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) chief executive Steven Udvar-Hazy said in an email to Reuters.
His remarks renewed a call for the two companies to trim output before they face the full impact of the tightening credit market. ILFC is the biggest customer of Boeing and EADS subsidiary Airbus.
Boeing spokesman Bernard Choi repeated the company's view that it might have to trim production in 2010, but not in 2009.
"We are keeping production rates steady for 2009," he said. "At this point, we have not changed our production rate. We feel that financing for 2009 is holding up well."
An Airbus spokesman reiterated that it planned to deliver about the same number of aircraft in 2009 as in 2008, when it delivered 483 planes. The forecast combines both single-aisle and wide-body jets.
Airbus said last month that it would cut its single-aisle plane production to 34 from 36 a month from October. |
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Source: Cargonewsasia
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