* Airbus exec denies taking part in bid for lessor ILFC
* Reaffirms Airbus 2009 sales, production targets
* Any output cut would be 5 percent but no plans for now
* "Tight winter" for airlines but no major cancellations (Adds Gut comment, further quotes, background)
By Tim Hepher
PARIS, Oct 15 (Reuters) - The sales chief at Europe's Airbus denied a report on Thursday he was involved in a bid to buy plane leasing giant ILFC, squashing the prospect of a dramatic switch from being the industry's top salesman to being its most powerful buyer.
Airbus commercial director John Leahy also told Reuters airlines were heading for a "tight winter" despite improved traffic showing the economic slump may be easing, and reaffirmed the European planemaker's key sales and production targets.
Leahy moved to head off any uncertainty over his role after French newspaper La Tribune reported he had teamed up with Jean-Paul Gut, a former senior official at Airbus parent EADS, to study buying ILFC with Qatari financial backing.
"There is absolutely no truth in this whatsoever," Leahy told Reuters in an interview. Gut, who ran international strategy at EADS until 2007, also denied eyeing up ILFC.
"I have never studied this dossier, whether it be alone or with any other partner," he told Reuters via a spokeswoman.
The report appeared to touch a sensitive nerve, since such a deal would accelerate a shift of industry power towards the Gulf, already among the sole sources of aircraft demand during the recession and now getting into parts production.
Prising its American sales champion away from Airbus would also likely unsettle the planemaker after a period of relative management stability. Airbus and parent EADS went through months of turmoil after its A380 superjumbo was delayed in 2006.
Leahy, 59, insisted he was staying in Toulouse.
"I am not considering leaving Airbus at the present time. I am quite happy here. After being at Airbus for 25 years, I feel I have an obligation to stay to get us through the downturn and back up out of the cycle," he said.
With a fleet of 1,000 jets, ILFC is seen as one of the most powerful players in aviation, even though its logo is never seen by travellers. Its future has been left uncertain since the financial crisis ripped through insurance parent AIG.
Sources told Reuters on Monday that AIG was in talks to sell a small part of ILFC back its its founder and Chief Executive Steven Udvar-Hazy, who sold it to AIG in 1990.
"That is my understanding too," Leahy said, adding the whole firm would have been "too big to chew off" right now.
ILFC is among several aircraft lessors up for sale or thrown off course by the credit crunch and a slump in aviation.
Royal Bank of Scotland may sell leasing unit RBS Aviation Capital and AerCap last month agreed to buy Genesis Lease.
"We are watching the lessor situation with great interest, but ILFC is part of AIG which belongs 80 percent to the U.S. government and RBS is owned by the UK government, which gives more stability than at the start of the crisis," Leahy said.
KEEPING SALES, PRODUCTION TARGETS
Leahy said airline traffic was recovering but yields, or average revenues per seat sold, were lagging. He did not however expect a significant new wave of aircraft cancellations.
"This will be a tight winter because a lot of airlines filled planes in the summer at heavily discounted fares and didn't build up a cash war chest to get through winter. So there could be some cancellations but I don't think there is that much risk of a big wave of cancellations," he said.
Leahy said he was sticking to Airbus's target of reaching up to 300 plane orders before cancellations in 2009, leaving more than 150 orders still to fill in the fourth quarter.
He also fended off calls by some analysts and industry figures, including ILFC's Udvar-Hazy, for both Airbus and rival Boeing to slash plane production by as much as 30 percent to protect aircraft values and cushion against cancellations.
He said Airbus had told suppliers on Wednesday it could keep production level after trimming narrow-body output to 34 planes a month from October, but any adjustment to this would be slim.
"There are currently no plans (to cut production). If there is a risk it could be minus 5 percent, but then by Spring it could be plus 5 percent," Leahy told Reuters.
Some suppliers are reluctant to keep production running at current rates for fear of a sudden slowdown at Airbus as airlines fail to raise funding to take aircraft deliveries. (Editing by Karen Foster and Rupert Winchester)