Airbus company to build more planes

Airbus parent EADS expects to top 305 airliner deliveries in 2004 and foresees rises beyond which the planemaker would have to increase production next year, EADS co-chief executive Philippe Camus has said.

“We are expecting to deliver more in 2004 than in 2003”, Mr Camus said ahead of the Farnborough air show, which opens near London on Monday.

Airbus delivered 305 planes in 2003, topping US rival Boeing for the first time.

Not only deliveries of finished planes but orders for new ones will rise in 2005 as demand, hurt by a slowdown in the airline sector since 2001, picks up, he said.