Airbus chief more confident on A350 delivery goal

TOULOUSE: The chief executive of the Airbus Group's commercial jet division said on Thursday he had grown more confident of reaching this year's target of at least 50 A350-900 deliveries.

"The objective has not changed. I visited the final assembly line last Tuesday and they are still working on 50 this year," Fabrice Bregier told reporters at an event marking the maiden flight of the larger A350-1000.

"I am more confident than I was at the end of June," he said. Bregier said Airbus was in no hurry to decide whether to build a larger model, known as A350-2000, to compete with the planned 406-seat Boeing 777X. He added that the 366-seat A350-1000 was in a sweet spot of the twin-engined jet market.