The A350 Is Becoming Late At The Gate

Airbus is seeking making fifty of A-350 during 2016. They have delivered only fifteen to date during 2016. The month of August is a French sacred cow for vacationers on the continent. Airbus is desperate to offer overtime and work to the vacationers at the plant to meet production goals.

Quoting the press, "“It would be a disaster for Airbus to miss its 50-aircraft target. The costs of the A350 programme aren’t coming down and delayed deliveries mean airlines seek compensation, so it’s a double whammy.” 

What's a company to do when escaping the inevitable of sub fifty production? Boeing is making fifty 787's every four months without the desperate call for immense overtime. In real time Airbus hopes to build four A-350's per month, but it even may fall short of that goal. Its customers who are anxious to get their hands on the A-350's, may in turn opt to say, "We ain't going unless its Boeing", and line up with the recent 787 production surge while tapping into the shrinking Boeing 787 backlog, which has shrunk under the stumbling Airbus A-350 backlog.

Overtime is the stated strategy, and then no vacations in the south of France the final penalty. Airbus has long said its supplier chain is the problem where they all of a sudden, can put the peddle to the metal and surge forward to fifty by year's end. The suppliers carefully worded its response to Airbus, "we are capable and ready for your production pace". 

Who’s correct in this problem? Is it a seasonal problem or a long standing production flaw in the Airbus scheme of things? Airbus said they could reach Boeing like production numbers from three years of first delivery back in 2014. Year end is rapidly closing with a paltry fifteen bodies in 2016 so far.

Customers can't plan anything with this Airbus response of so few A-350's and having a larger wide body backlog than Boeing is because Boeing it is making so many. Not only is the A-380 languishing in the market and production line, it appears customers have a way out of its A-350 dilemma from its slow delivery pace by penalizing Airbus. The answer comes back to overtime in the month of August and cancel your vacation plans French workforce. "C'est la gerre", Boeing has been ramping up with a very successful air frame and Airbus is stuck in the French mud and not going south of France just as yet.