According to industry insiders on Tuesday, engine manufacturer CFM, unwilling to significantly increase its supply to Airbus amid pressure from another major customer Boeing, may be a factor in Airbus's plans to delay boosting jet production.

On Monday, Airbus postponed its narrow-body aircraft production growth plan for several years, lowered its profit forecast, and lowered its delivery target for 2024 due to shortages of engines and other components, causing the stock price of Europe's largest aerospace group to plummet on Tuesday.

CFM is an Atlantic China Welding Consumables, Inc. joint venture between General Electric Aviation and French Safran Group. Its LEAP engines, which are supplied to all Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, typically provide engines for more than half of Airbus's A320neo series competitors, and compete with the geared turbofan engines of RTX's subsidiary Pratt & Whitney.

Facing many suppliers' questioning of its production plans, Airbus is trying to increase production to meet demand.

Insiders said that negotiations for the sake of achieving the 2025 goal were stalled after Airbus requested that CFM increase its narrow-body (model) delivery share to compensate for Pratt & Whitney's industrial difficulties.

Two sources said that Airbus hoped that CFM could increase its share of production in Airbus from the current approximately 60% to about 75% of A320neo deliveries.

Industry insiders said that CFM engine deliveries had declined in the quarter, which had previously performed flatly, causing industry doubts.

However, Airbus' request also places the world's largest engine manufacturer in an increasingly delicate strategic position on its 50th anniversary, as it may exacerbate serious trouble with its other major customer, Boeing.

CFM's market share depends on a range of factors: productivity of Airbus, productivity of Boeing, and the contribution of Pratt & Whitney to Airbus's production.

Before the outbreak of the epidemic, the two were roughly in a state of balance, but with the industrial problems of its competitors, CFM's share of deliveries at Airbus has steadily increased.

Now, the industry faces not one problem, but two - various events in flight have slowed Boeing's recovery from its earlier safety crisis, and Pratt & Whitney's long-standing bottleneck. The balance of power between top companies is usually severely disrupted, which puts pressure on CFM to produce more engines.

In contrast, Airbus is trying to meet demand. If CFM can provide all the engines required by Boeing, its European competitor will gain overwhelming advantages, as Boeing is still hovering at low delivery rates.

A senior industry insider said: "CFM will strive to balance both sides, but will never do anything structurally detrimental to Boeing." CFM is the first and largest partner of Boeing.

Another source familiar with the engine manufacturer said the company is unwilling to harm Boeing excessively, a position that may not be expressed directly to Airbus but is reflected in internal discussions.

"CFM will definitely try to put on the brakes for Airbus," the source said.

Airbus stated that it has no comment on its confidential discussions with suppliers. CFM has also not responded to inquiries about the relative size of deliveries to customers, but has stated that it is working hard to meet Airbus's needs. It has repeatedly stated that it supports neither Boeing nor Airbus.

Rob Morris, global head of consultancy at Cirium Ascend, said that in the case of airlines choosing engines, CFM accounts for 65% of the backlog for the Airbus A320neo series and 50% of the narrow-body aircraft deliveries in 2023.

"Firm Support"

Established in 1974, CFM was founded by industrialists with colorful war records: Gerhard Neumann, a German-born fighter aircraft engineer who fought for the Allies, and Rene Ravaud, a French Resistance hero who lost an arm during bombing in Brest, Britain.

The company is little known and has gone unnoticed in the industry's "greatest war," including the trade war between its customers Airbus and Boeing and the turbulent transatlantic trade relationship in between.

At the anniversary ceremony in early June, the chairman of Saifeng Group sharply reminded the audience, including French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and senior Boeing executives, of the importance of Boeing to CFM and the French aviation industry.

Ross McKinnis, speaking at the opulent national states hall of the former French Navy Ministry, said: "We firmly support Airbus and Boeing, both in their ups and downs and in the ups and downs of transatlantic relations. Without them, we could not achieve such success."

Senior Airbus officials did not attend the event.

On Tuesday, Airbus's share price fell 11% due to production delays and unexpected costs in the space business. A serious executive summit was held at the Toulouse headquarters.

CFM must reach an agreement on engine production 18 months in advance, making the mid-2024 deadline the last chance to set the 2025 target.

On Monday, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury admitted that the production target for 2025 has not yet been determined, but he tried to play down concerns about production increases in the market.

"When it comes to production in 2025, we have commitments from engine manufacturers," he told analysts.

"This does not mean that we fully agree with the current estimated final production, but we have obtained the support needed to achieve a production increase in 2025, which is important to me."