Airbus parent EADS acknowledged on Thursday its controversial restructuring plans were inadequate to cope with the dollar's "unbearable" slide, as delays in a major military project pushed it to a deeper quarterly loss.
A slump in the dollar to fresh lows against the euro means Europe's largest aerospace group will have to find 1 billion euros in new savings between now and 2010-11, its top executive said, but he declined to say whether that meant more job cuts.
Unions warned of difficult negotiations over any addition to the 10,000 job cuts already planned under "Power8" restructuring at Airbus, which caused a stir in France and Germany this year.
EADS has been rocked by delays to its A380 superjumbo, which drove planemaker subsidiary Airbus into loss last year, and complains the weak dollar favors Boeing .
Most recently, it was forced to push back another major project, the A400M military airlifter, by six to 12 months.
The move triggered a 1.37 billion euro charge in the third quarter, helping to push EADS to a bigger-than-expected third-quarter operating loss of 710 million euros. Net losses widened to 776 million euros from 189 million a year ago.
EADS also cut its 2007 operating profit target by 400 million euros to "roughly breakeven" but investors took that as a signal to buy back shares sold off recently on the A400M woes.
EADS shares were up 4 percent at 22.42 euros at midsession.
"They didn't cut forecasts as much as expected," said one London-based brokerage analyst who said that accounted for some of the rise in EADS shares. "Pricing pressure (on Airbus plane sales) was also not as bad as expected."
There have been fears of a dent in aircraft prices following a prolonged peak in the aircraft industry's cycle and the psychological impact on airlines of near-$100 oil.