Airbus cuts projected deliveries by 18 due to engine problems

Airbus pared down its projected commercial aircraft deliveries for 2018 from 818 to 800 Wednesday due to delays with the delivery of engines for its newest A320 and A330 planes.

Chief financial officer Harald Wilhelm, in a results call for the first nine months of 2018, said the company was "frustrated" that it had to "take down the plan for the A330neo quite substantially."

But he declined to comment on whether it would seek to invoke any penalties against Rolls-Royce, the manufacturer of the Trent 7000 engines used in the new generation of the wide-body jet.

For the new generation of the A320 single-body workhorse, Wilhelm said Airbus had revised its delivery schedule "slightly down" due to delays with the supply of engines and "some internal industrial issues," which he did not detail.

The company said it still expected to make adjusted profit of about 5 billion euros (5.66 billion dollars) in 2018.

Airbus is in the throes of a major management shake-up, with chief executive Tom Enders due to be replaced by its French head of commercial aircraft, Guillaume Faury, next April.