Wilhelm told reporters that Airbus saw potential commercial demand for 70 or 70-plus of the same aircraft in the longer term, but that no decisions had been taken.

The comments elaborate on a verbal statement from Airbus this week that it was raising its target for production to 63 aircraft a month from 2019, confirming a newspaper report.

Drawing a distinction between production and deliveries, Wilhelm said that since 2015, Airbus had set out plans for 60 deliveries a month from 2019 with buffer capacity allowing production to reach 63. These plans have not changed, he added.

On Oct 30, 2015, Airbus said in a press release it planned to "further increase the production rate" to 60 aircraft a month in mid-2019.

On production of other models, Airbus said on Friday it was reducing the number of A330 deliveries to 50 per year in 2019.

Asked to provide a comparison, Wilhelm told reporters that Airbus was targeting 60 deliveries of the long-haul jet family in 2018.

(This version of the story corrects number of A330 deliveries in 2018 to 60, in last paragraph)

(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)