Airbus dodges bad news after Boeing tumbles on outlook cut
However, the Toulouse-based plane-maker’s Q3 earnings are down about 9% after aircraft deliveries dipped
[TOULOUSE] A day after Boeing postponed a range of financial goals, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury struck a more optimistic tone, saying that anyone expecting for him to pile on more gloom should look elsewhere.
“If you’re looking for bad news, I’m sorry, I don’t have any,” he said on Wednesday (Oct 29), as the European plane-maker maintained its aircraft delivery target and financial outlook for the year.
That includes a race in the final two months of 2026 to meet Airbus’ delivery target of about 870 aircraft, meaning the company needs to hand over more than four planes each business day to get there.
Shares rose as much as 4 per cent on Thursday morning in Paris trading.
Faury also said the supply chain environment has improved, and that RTX’s Pratt & Whitney is expected to deliver enough engines to reach Airbus’ delivery target, amid a dispute with the turbine maker over sluggish supplies.
“Pratt, no change either,” he said. “We think we have what we need for 2026, and the numbers have not changed for 2027.”
Taken together, the comments show how the European manufacturer is pressing its advantage at a time when rival Boeing is struggling to ramp up production, after several quality lapses over the past years hampered the US planemaker’ output.
On Tuesday, Boeing cut its full-year aircraft delivery target and said it needs more time to accommodate higher production rates. The stock tumbled as much as 10 per cent to an 18-month low.
As part of the adjustments, Boeing now expects to fall short of its target for its cash cow 737 Max, and also pushed out its next production rate hike for that model by many months.
Meanwhile, Airbus maintained its goal for the competing A320neo family of aircraft.
Not immune to setbacks
Still, Airbus is not immune to problems afflicting a supply chain that has still not fully recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as other factory setbacks.
Its third-quarter earnings dropped about 9 per cent after aircraft deliveries dipped, as the plane-maker contended with several quality lapses on some of its production lines.
Those issues include finding a tool in the tail section of an A330neo and a deviation in the surface of the A321 jet.
Faury said the company is facing other challenges in acquiring interiors such as seats, and is also “suffering” in the ramp-up on its biggest jet, the A350, that has been impacted by the Spirit AeroSystems acquisition.
Airbus added that it incurred 112 million euros (US$125 million) in costs in the quarter from the integration of Spirit work packages.
Adjusted earnings before interest and tax fell to 1.77 billion euros, on sales of 17.47 billion euros, the Toulouse, France-based company said on Wednesday. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast earnings before interest and taxes (Ebit) to come in at 1.79 billion euros, with revenue of 18.09 billion euros.
The company maintained its target of adjusted Ebit of about 7.5 billion euros and free cash flow before customer financing of around 4.5 billion euros for 2026.
In the quarter, adjusted operating profit at Airbus’ main civil aircraft business fell by about 12 per cent to 1.38 billion euros, while earnings at the defence and space subsidiary rose 19 per cent to 185 million euros.
Earnings at the helicopters business dropped to 205 million euros, because of what Airbus called a less favourable delivery mix.
The company has dropped about 3.3 per cent so far this year, after advancing by 28 per cent over the course of 2025. At that rate, Airbus’ return this year would be the worst since 2020. BLOOMBERG
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