Airbus is increasing production rates for its A350 aircraft due to strong consumer demand rather than taking advantage of the crisis at U.S. rival Boeing, according to Thomas Toepfer, Airbus’ chief financial officer. In a conversation with CNBC’s Charlotte Reed on Thursday, he explained that this decision was not driven by any benefits from instability at Boeing but instead reflected the “very strong commercial momentum” for the A350 aircraft. The French planemaker announced plans to increase production of its long-range plane to 12 units per month in 2028, building on the near half (or roughly four out ten) of orders from this series that it received during Q1 alone. Toepfer also highlighted “very strong order intake” and anticipated continued momentum for Airbus’s gross commercial aircraft orders, which reached a staggering 2319 in full-year 2023 – up significantly on the previous year (when they stood at just over one thousand).
The aviation industry is currently grappling with supply chain issues that have not improved recently. Toepfer acknowledged this and explained how these complications, affecting both materials as a whole and specific suppliers including Boeing subsidiary Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc., are putting additional pressure on the entire sector – Airbus included. Despite positive discussions regarding making efficiencies with Spirit in relation to their manufacturing of components for both firms (as well as exploring taking over certain work packages currently being produced by them), Toepfer acknowledged that this is not helpful either, given its impact upon supply chains and individual suppliers alike within the sector generally and at Airbus specifically.
The planemaker’s latest quarterly results missed analyst expectations on Thursday with a year-on-year decline in operating profit of around €577m ($619m), according to Reuters, while Boeing reported a loss of $355 million during the previous day.
Leave a Reply