EADS delays A350 but avoids heat of crisis

PARIS, Nov 10 (Reuters): Airbus parent EADS pushed back its new A350 jetliner by six months with a charge of 200 million euros ($272 million) as it gave itself more room to deliver Europe's answer to the carbon-composite Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The delay trimmed third-quarter profits that nonetheless beat expectations as Airbus stabilized costs on its troublesome A380 superjumbo project, lifting EADS shares as Europe's largest aerospace group also raised its outlook for the year. Despite the storm clouds over developed economies, Airbus and Boeing who dominate the $70 billion aircraft market are boosting output to meet demand from Asia and the Middle East. "I am confident the commercial aircraft market will sustain our growth in years to come despite the weakening of the macro-economic environment and particularly of the European economies," Finance Director Hans Peter Ring told reporters. "Fifty percent of our backlog is in growing regions of the world and not in Europe or the U.S....so provided there isn't a big double-dip recession we think it is manageable for us." He declined to comment on the instability ripping through the euro zone or to say whether EADS, seen as another European flagship, had drawn up contingency plans for further turmoil.