PLANE-maker Bombardier says it now expects to deliver only seven of its new CSeries jets this year – and not 15 as it had expected earlier.
The Montreal-based company said the revised forecast is the result of delayed engine deliveries from its supplier, Pratt & Whitney.
The programme for the CSeries plane - which is designed as a rival to Airbus and Boeing - is already two-and-a-half years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget.
But Bombardier said it still expects to produce 90 to 120 of the CSeries aircraft a year by 2020.
The wings for the CSeries are made at the company's Belfast plant on Queen's Island.
Bombardier's C Series finally got off the ground last month as the first commercial flight of one of the new planes.
The CS100 fly from Zurich to Parish Charles de Gaulle came ahead of the delivery of the first CS300 aircraft to airBaltic in the autumn.
Bombardier said orders for both planes had picked up in the first half of 2016 with 127 new orders bringing to overall number to 370.
Speaking at the Farnborough Airshow recently Bombardier Commercial Aircraft president Fred Cromer said: "The capture of 161 firm orders in six months signals Bombardier's intent to re-assert itself as a strong leader in commercial aviation."
Meanwhile Bombardier is pressing ahead with plans announced in February to trim 7,000 workers over two years, including hundreds in Belfast.
It says the layoffs are a continuation of the “workforce optimisation” plan being implemented across the company, and up to 2,000 of the cuts, mainly in Canada and Europe, will be contractors.
