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Airbus' parent company EADS has reported a higher than expected third-quarter loss and warned that it may need to expand its costcutting plans.

In a statement Europe's largest aerospace group reported a net loss of €705 million (£491 million) for the first nine months of 2007, compared with a net income of €867 million (£604 million) for the corresponding period of the previous year.

The company also confirmed that it made a loss of €343 million (£239 million) in terms of earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), down from the profit of €1,426 million (£995 million) reported for the first nine months of 2006.

EADS said its earnings had been hit by a €1.37 billion (£0.96 billion) charge related to delays and cost overruns regarding its A400M military transport aircraft programme.

As such the company warned that its full-year earnings were only expected to "break-even".

EADS also stressed that the continued weakening of the US dollar highlighted the need for the company to extend its restructuring and costcutting plans.

Under the Power8 restructuring plan launched last year, EADS' subsidiary Airbus plans to shed 10,000 jobs over a four-year period, as part of plans to combat the impact of the declining dollar and achieve savings of €5 billion (£3.5 billion).

Referring to the possible need to extend the costcutting measures, EADS chief executive Louis Gallois stressed: "It isn’t time to lower our guard. The sliding trajectory of the US dollar confirms the necessity to implement and to reinforce Power8 with additional measures.

"There is no way around additional efficiency measures to ensure EADS’ long-term competitiveness," he added.

Last month Airbus' A380 superjumbo conducted its maiden commercial flight after a series of production delays which pushed back the delivery of the world's largest passenger plane.