An Airbus employee works on an Airbus A350 aircraft part at the Airbus Atlantic factory in Bouguenais, near Nantes, western France, on February 29, 2024.
Sebastien Salom-gomis | Afp | beautiful images
The French aircraft manufacturer’s chief financial officer said Airbus is increasing production of the A350 because of consumer demand, not because of the ongoing crisis at US rival Boeing.
Toulouse-based Airbus on Thursday announced plans to increase the production rate of long-range aircraft to 12 per month by 2028.
“I would say this clearly reflects the very strong commercial momentum we see for the A350,” Airbus Chief Financial Officer Thomas Toepfer told CNBC’s Charlotte Reed on Thursday when asked whether the company will benefit from this or not. instability at Boeing.
Airbus reported total commercial aircraft orders of 170 aircraft in the quarter, nearly half of which were for A350 variants.
Airbus is ramping up A350 production because of consumer demand, not because ongoing crisis at US rival Boeing, according to the French aircraft manufacturer’s chief financial officer.
“Therefore [we experience] Order intake is very, very high,” Toepfer said, adding he expects that momentum to continue.
Airline companies globally say they are facing supply chain and production problems, saying they are struggling to respond quickly enough to hot demand from airlines. about the new plane. Airbus’ total commercial aircraft orders jump forward 2,319 for all of 2023, up from 1,078 in 2022.
Boeing has reduced production of its best-selling 737 Max, the model at the center of the crisis after being involved in two fatal crashes and a plane crash. mid-flight incident in which a door plug came loose.
Toepfer said the supply chain environment has not improved in recent months and remains “broad-based” across many materials, complicating Airbus’s efforts to increase output.
He reiterated his opinion comment that the problems at Boeing are not helpful to the industry in general or to Airbus in particular.
“It’s causing additional pressure and consequences in the supply chain and for some individual suppliers, and that’s what we’re feeling as well,” he said. “That doesn’t help the development of the industry or Airbus as a whole.”
Toepfer said Airbus has had “very constructive discussions” about improving efficiency with manufacturer Spirit, which is participating in Takeover negotiations with Boeing amid cash flow challenges. God provide both of you with the aircraft.
“We are also potentially contemplating taking over the work packages that Spirit is producing for Airbus, as they are very important to us and the highest priority for us is of course ensuring that the delivery those work packages are guaranteed,” he continued.
Airbus quarterly results missed analyst expectations on Thursday, reported operating profit fell 25% year-on-year to 577 million euros ($619 million) in the first quarter, according to Reuters. Boeing on Wednesday posted Quarterly loss was $355 million.
