Germany expects to take delivery of four more Airbus A400M planes by year end

By Andrea Shalal

BERLIN, July 19 (Reuters) - Germany expects to take delivery of four more A400M military transport planes from Airbus before the end of this year, a defence ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.

The government is also still in talks about receiving compensation from the plane maker for delays to its purchases of A400M aircraft, which have been hit by technical problems, he said.

Germany has ordered 53 of the planes from Airbus, but only four have been delivered so far, including one earlier this month, with production delays caused in part by gearbox glitches on the plane's turboprop engines, which are built by MTU Aero Engines.

"We remain in ongoing discussions with the company about challenges with the A400M programme," the ministry spokesman told Reuters by telephone. He declined to comment on any specific progress in Germany's demand for compensation.

Airbus has already taken billions of euros of charges on the A400M programme after a series of technical and schedule problems. Last week the company said it was likely to take a fresh A400M charge when it reports its first-half results, and further writedowns were possible beyond 2016.

Airbus spokesman Kieran Daly declined to confirm how many would be delivered to Germany this year, saying the plane maker was still finalising its delivery plans with OCCAR, the European procurement agency that acts as a single interface between the company and the various countries buying the planes.

German defence sources told Reuters this week that they were pleased that European authorities had certified an interim fix for a power gearbox issue with engines on the military transport planes, but said they were still waiting for details about a more permanent fix.

The German defence ministry convened a new working group on June 29 to look at the country's transport needs, including how to bridge the capacity gap caused by delays in the A400M programme, according to ministry sources.

The group is due to submit a report by the end of the year on the broader issue, including an expected capability gap resulting from the A400M's inability to land at small airports, the sources said.

The A400M's gearbox is built by Italy's Avio, a unit of General Electric Co.

The engines are built by Europrop International (EPI (HKSE: 0689-OL.HK - news) ), a joint venture among four European engine makers, Germany's MTU Aero Engines, Snecma, part of France's Safran (Swiss: SAF.SW - news) , Rolls-Royce Holdings, and Industria de Turbo Propulsores, which was recently acquired by Rolls-Royce.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Susan Fenton)