EADS sees Airbus deliveries rising 10 percent next year

BERLIN (AFP) - EADS, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, is expecting deliveries of its Airbus aircraft maker to rise by 10 percent next year, the group's co-chairman Rainer Hertrich revealed.
"At Airbus, we're anticipating growth of around 10 percent in deliveries in 2005," Hertrich said in a speech prepared for delivery at a congress here Thursday.
EADS has not so far provided any concrete forecast for deliveries next year, but in a newspaper interview in July, Hertrich had talked about "double-digit percentage growth".
As for 2004, Airbus has already revised upwards its delivery targets to between 315 and 320 aircraft, just below the record 325 recorded in 2001.
Nine-month deliveries stood at 224 aircraft this year.
Hertrich, who is also head of the German aeronautics industry federation BDLI, expressed optimism for the future.
Following the sector-wide crisis sparked by the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, the Iraq war and the SARS health crisis, "the situation has eased noticeably," Hertrich said.
"Passenger and cargo numbers are again developing positively."
The number of flight movements worldwide would likely double or even triple in the next 15 years, he predicted.