Boeing Co. and Airbus are facing a slowdown on their older model assembly lines because of a shortage of basic components such as seats, toilets and galleys, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

The production disruption was raising costs and delaying millions of dollars in payments from customers, the paper said.

Managers at both companies suggested the holdups could affect this year's financial results, it added.

Boeing, the world's biggest-selling plane maker, and Airbus, a unit of European Aeronautics Defence & Space Co., said that the delays emerged almost a year ago, but have become much worse this year.

Boeing did not immediately return calls seeking comment, while representatives of Airbus had no immediate comment.

The lack of components stem from small suppliers that have overcommitted to build equipment and did not gear up production fast enough to deliver it, the paper said.

On Thursday, Boeing announced the first cancellation of an order for its delayed 787 Dreamliner, signalling that airlines may be getting impatient for deliveries of the new, fuel-efficient plane.

Also on Thursday, UAL Corp., parent of United Airlines, said it may cancel an order for 42 Airbus aircraft, forfeiting a $91 million dollar deposit and possibly heralding a wave of deferrals and cancellations for the major plane makers as their customers scale back growth plans.