MUNICH, March 9: European plane-maker Airbus plunged into its first-ever operating loss in 2006 and will be in the red again this year because of delays and restructuring, parent company EADS said on Friday.

The announcement underlines how far the aircraft manufacturer, a symbol of European industrial cooperation and technology, has fallen in such a short space of time.

Despite delivering a record 434 aircraft last year, EADS said Airbus made an operating loss of 572 million euros ($752 million) -- compared with an operating profit of 2.3 billion euros in 2005.

"Airbus will display another substantial loss in 2007," EADS said, pointing to more gloom ahead owing to an array of costly initiatives and a worsening business environment.

The main costs in 2007 would arise from a controversial restructuring programme announced by Airbus last week, overruns from its much-delayed A380 superjumbo project, and charges from the launch of its mid-range A350 XWB.

EADS, which has helicopter, space and defence assets as well as Airbus, reported an 86 per cent fall in its operating profit to 399 million euros from 2.852 billion euros in 2005.

Net profit plummeted to 99 million euros compared to a year-earlier net profit of 1.676 billion euros, while sales rose to 39.434 billion euros from 34.206 billion in 2005.

EADS said that increased research and development costs and a fall of the dollar against the euro would also undercut the company.—AFP