Boeing stock selloff extends on report rival Airbus will launch a new aircraft program

Boeing (NYSE:) shares are down more than 2% on Tuesday after Airbus revealed it would launch a new aircraft program by the end of the decade, with its CEO making various other comments at aviation summit.

Airbus’s CEO Guillaume Faury believes the company will launch the new plane by the end of the decade, with development coming in the next decade.

Furthermore, he believes the company’s next single-aisle plane must reduce fuel burn by around 25% and that an open-rotor engine could be a game changer if it delivered the promised benefits.

Meanwhile, according to a Bloomberg report, Faury also said it is optimistic that the company will reach its delivery target for this year. The comment comes only a few months after the European planemaker cut the target due to supply constraints.

Faury reportedly told listeners at an aviation summit in Washington organized by the US Chamber of Commerce that achieving the goal will be a “big challenge,” but he is “quite confident” Airbus can hit the target of 770 aircraft handovers.

Elsewhere, Faury, commenting on the aerospace industry as a whole, said the sector underestimated the time it would take to replace workers who left during the Covid-19 pandemic.