Airbus sees first A400M deliveries in 2013

European Aeronautic, Defence and Space Co.’s Airbus unit plans to begin serial production of the A400M military transport at the end of 2010, after winning additional financial aid for the program from government clients.

The company plans to deliver the first four planes in 2013, with eight deliveries scheduled for the following year, said Domingo Urena, who heads the A400M program.

By 2016, the company plans to produce two A400Ms a month, with capacity to boost the rate to 2.5 planes if necessary, Urena told journalists in Paris today. Since the debut takeoff in Seville, Spain, in December, Airbus has performed 10 test flights, he said.

Airbus agreed with the seven countries involved to program to receive an additional 3.5 billion euros ($4.8 billion) in aid and loans, increasing the 20 billion-euro price for 180 planes originally agreed in 2003. Airbus is trying to persuade South Africa to return as a customer for the A400M after the country canceled its order for eight units in December, Urena said.

The program as it stands now will not be profitable EADS, Urena said. The plane’s deliveries are now scheduled to stretch out till 2022 for its seven government customers, and the “challenge” for EADS is to cut costs so that the program may make a profit one day, a goal that “won’t be easy,” he said.

--Editors: Benedikt Kammel, Andrew Noel.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrea Rothman in Toulouse, France aerothman@bloomberg.net.