TOULOUSE, France, Nov 30: European aircraft maker Airbus expects to deliver about 300 aircraft in 2002, chairman Noel Forgeard said on Friday, cautioning that the figure was uncertain because talks with some companies on deliervery postponements have yet to be completed.

Speaking in an interview with French newspaper la Depeche du Midi on Friday, Forgeard said: “300 aircraft is the best estimate that we can make now on the issue of negotiations.”

Despite the current crisis in the aviation industry, brought on in part by the September 11 attacks in the United States, the company expected this year to deliver 320 aircraft, “which is not far from our intitial forecasts,” he said.

On Thursday, Rainer Hertrich, co-chief executive of EADS told the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung that the company could reduce production to 270 airplanes next year if the aviation market further deteriorated.

Forgeard said the crisis in the aviation industry struck just as Airbus was “preparing the development” of its superjumbo A380 airliner, which he added “is largely financed by the margins on the planes we sell.”—AFP