The years follow one another and are similar to the great happiness of Airbus. Once again, the world leader in aeronautics has set records. After a peak in profits in 2022, orders have in turn reached record highs. On the occasion of the presentation of its annual financial results, Thursday February 15, the European aircraft manufacturer was delighted to have recorded 2,094 net orders in 2023. A historic record.
In 2022, the order book had “only” increased by 820 additional aircraft. The strength of Airbus is reflected in its turnover which stood at 65.44 billion euros in 2023. Up 11% compared to 2022, when it reached 58.76 billion euros. However, this surge in the number of orders is not reflected in net profit which fell by 11%, to 3.78 billion euros compared to 4.24 billion euros in 2022. A slight underperformance linked to the difficulties of the space division which led to a provision of 600 million euros being passed.
This slowdown in net income is also the consequence of Airbus’s thwarted recovery. In 2023, the group chaired by Guillaume Faury only delivered 735 devices. Even if it exceeded its forecasts of 720 aircraft, the aircraft manufacturer has still not regained its scores before the Covid-19 crisis. Indeed, in 2019, it delivered 863 aircraft to its client companies. The effects of the crisis will not disappear anytime soon. The return to good figures before the pandemic should not occur in 2024. For this year, the group does not plan more than 800 deliveries.
A fragile supplier chain
“This is a remarkable result given the operational complexity” and above all tensions on the supplier chain, however welcomed Mr. Faury. While the European aircraft manufacturer consolidates its position as world number one in aeronautics, rival Boeing finished in the red for the fifth year in a row with a loss of 2.2 billion dollars (around 2 billion euros ). The American company has once again taken a nosedive due, in particular, to recurring production quality problems. At the beginning of January, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX lost a door in mid-flight that was missing fixing bolts.
Airbus and Boeing will face the same problem over the coming years: at what pace should they increase production rates while order books are overflowing? The European aircraft manufacturer has already warned several times that it is postponing by one year, from 2025 to 2026, its objective of removing 75 A320 aircraft from its assembly lines each month compared to around fifty today. Airbus does not want to increase the tempo too quickly at the risk of one of the links in its supplier chain breaking. Facing analysts on Thursday, Mr. Faury recognized that the difficulties encountered by certain elements of his “supply chain” were “a limiting factor”.
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