The parent company of Airbus, which employs 3,600 people, in Bristol, has plunged to its first loss in two years amid lingering uncertainty over major aircraft programmes.

Aerospace giant EADS lost 87 million euros (£78 million) between July and September, compared with profits of 679 million euros (£609 million) a year earlier.

The firm is being squeezed by a weaker dollar because its aircraft orders are in dollars, but most of its costs are in euros.

EADS said "ongoing uncertainty" over its A380 super jumbo and A400M military carrier aircraft programme left it unable to forecast the extent of the damage to full-year results.

The company expects to make underlying earnings of around 2 billion euros (£1.79 billion) this year but has already racked up 2.4 billion euros (£2.15 billion) in charges on the A400M project so far.

The scheme has been delayed by rising costs and technical problems, prompting the South African government to cancel its order for eight aircraft earlier this month.

The firm said it was in the "difficult last phase" of negotiations with its other customers for the aircraft. It added: "The full financial consequences of the delays will only be known once the negotiations are finalised."

EADS said the much-delayed A380 programme was also still "a matter of concern".

The company employs almost 6,200 staff in Broughton, Flintshire, to make the wings of the aircraft, as well as a further 3,600 at Filton.

As the aviation industry suffers from lower demand for air travel due to recession, many of EADS's customers have asked to postpone the delivery of the new aircraft. EADS is reviewing its production plan for the aircraft and said some deliveries scheduled for the year-end were likely to shift into early 2010.