MONTREAL (Reuters) - Airbus planemaking chief Guillaume Faury confirmed on Wednesday that new variants of the A321neo passenger jet had contributed to delivery delays at a plant in Hamburg, Germany, but said engineers were in the midst of resolving the problem.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that Airbus faced fresh snags related to the A321neo, on top of recent engine delays which had disrupted the switchover from models with current generation of engines known as 'ceo' and re-engined 'neo' models.
Asked about problems at Hamburg, Faury said: "We had, at the beginning of this year, difficulties that you know about .. with deliveries of engines which have largely contributed to industrial problems that we have now to digest.
"There are a lot of airplanes to be delivered end of 2018, beginning of 2019 to recover these delays. This is a deal with quite a lot of complexity in transitioning from the ceo to the neo...and introduction into service of the two new variants of the A321," he said, referring to a jet mainly built in Hamburg.
"We are in Hamburg in the phase of solving those difficulties," he told reporters during a visit to Canada. Airbus shares rose on Wednesday in a spillover from a stock rally at rival Boeing <BA.N>, which reported upbeat profits.
(This story has been refiled with correct day of week)
(Reporting by Allison Lampert, Editing by Tim Hepher)
