DUBAI: A slew of plane orders at this week's Dubai Airshow has added weight to Airbus' hopes of raising output, but the jetmaker is not yet ready to pull the trigger, its top executive said.

       Airbus SE bagged 265 firm orders at the Middle East event, closing a gap with Boeing which had been leading this year as sales of its 737 MAX rebound from a safety crisis.

       A further 139 provisional orders lifted Airbus' Dubai tally above 400 jets, while Boeing won a firm order for 72 MAX.

       CEO Guillaume Faury said Airbus had definitively agreed to increase production to 65 single-aisle jets a month by summer 2025, from a planned average of 45 this quarter.

       Beyond that, Airbus has asked suppliers to explore rates of 70 in early 2024 and 75 by 2025, but has not made a decision.

       Some suppliers have criticised the plans, worried the pandemic recovery will remain patchy.

       "We are in the phase of assessing demand," Faury told Reuters in an interview this week.- Reuters