Qatar Airways has agreed to pick up four finished Airbus A350-900s, four months after the Middle Eastern carrier cancelled delivery of the aircraft.

Airbus says the airline has agreed to "continue to take delivery" of the four associated aircraft by the end of the year.

Qatar Airways had 43 A350-900s on order but cut four of them in June, leaving it with a total commitment of 39.

By the end of September the carrier had taken delivery of 15 of them.

Qatar Airways has also ordered 37 A350-1000s. The first of these is still due for delivery before the year-end.

Airbus chief financial officer Harald Wilhelm, speaking during a third-quarter briefing, said the ramp-up of A350 was progressing well.

He says the industrial situation has "stabilised" and that recurring cost convergence was "well under control", and that the airframer was aiming for break-even at the end of the decade.

"We didn't invest that much money to keep it at break-even," Wilhelm adds, stating that the manufacturer expects to achieve a "significant" margin for each aircraft beyond 2020.

Airbus's commercial aircraft division turned in an adjusted EBIT of €1.54 billion ($1.79 billion) in the nine months to 30 September, down by 16%.

It states that this reflects a change of delivery mix as well as transition pricing as the airframer moves to production of new aircraft models and variants.

Source: Cirium Dashboard