April 22 (Bloomberg) -- Airbus SAS, the world's biggest maker of commercial aircraft, said it's raising the price of its planes in response to the dollar's decline against the euro and an increase in the cost of metals.

The list price of the single-aisle A320 series will rise by an average $2 million as of May 1, while twin-aisle airliners will typically cost $4 million more, Toulouse, France-based Airbus said in a statement today.

``The price increase is mainly triggered by the weak U.S. currency and the overall increase of the world's raw-material prices, especially with regards to metal,'' Airbus said.

The dollar's weakness hurts earnings at Airbus and parent European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. when revenue from dollar-denominated aircraft sales is converted into euros. Metal costs have also weighed on profit, with the price of aluminum used rising 28 percent this year as supplies are constrained by energy shortages amid rising purchases in China.

Airbus's smallest, cheapest model, the A318, will be priced at $59.1 million starting in May, the company said. The A330-200 twin-aisle airliner will cost $180.9 million and the double-deck A380 superjumbo will be priced at $327.4 million.

EADS posted its first loss in five years in 2007 and said on March 11 that the dollar's drop against the euro would hold back profit margins in 2008. The euro rose to a record $1.60 as of 4:49 p.m. in Frankfurt today.

The cost of manufactured products made in the 15 countries that use the euro increased 5 percent last year, Airbus said today. Aluminum, used in fuselages, may outperform other base metals next year to exceed its May 2006 record, Gayle Berry, an analyst at Barclays Capital, said in Beijing April 20.

Factory Decision

A decision on whether to push ahead with the sale of European factories, a strategy complicated by the dollar's decline, will be taken in the next couple of weeks, Airbus Chief Executive Officer Tom Enders said in an interview today.

Airbus has been trying to sell plants in Germany, the U.K. and France in a reorganization aimed at recovering from production delays on the A380 and A400M military transport. The company said in December the dollar's decline would affect the plan and talks with OHB Technology AG on the German factories broke down last month in a dispute over contract currencies.

Toulouse-based Latecoere SA has been selected as preferred bidder for two French plants and GKN Plc of Redditch, England, was chosen to buy Airbus's facility in Filton, near Bristol.

``In the next couple of weeks, I'm deliberately not more precise, we need to make up our minds if we can get on in France, if we can get on in Great Britain,'' Enders said in the interview at an aviation conference in Geneva.

Airbus competes with Chicago-based Boeing Co. in the global airliner market. The European Union and U.S. lodged counter-cases over state aid more than three years ago before the World Trade Organization.

Airbus expects the WTO to rule on the disputes ``later this year,'' Enders said. ``So we'll see what they come up with, I'm very relaxed about it.''

A long-term sustainable solution will only come through negotiations between the two planemakers and not through WTO rulings, the CEO added.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Lavell in Frankfurt at tlavell@bloomberg.net; Jann Bettinga in Geneva via jbettinga@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 22, 2008 13:06 EDT