Airbus Corporate Jets and Airbus Corporate Helicopters reported at NBAA-BACE this week that 2024 has so far been a stable year, while projecting a promising 2025 and beyond. Luis Manuel Barrajon, Airbus Corporate Jets sales and marketing director for North America, also noted that Airbus has a strong presence in the U.S. that is growing day by day.
“The economic contribution of Airbus is huge,” Barrajon continued.
Roughly 15,300 Airbus narrow- and widebody airplanes have been installed in the U.S. In Airbus Corporate Jets' target bilinear market, Barrajon said Airbus holds about 50% of the market share. Looking at broader market demand, Airbus expects utilization and the need for larger, more flexible, fuel-efficient aircraft to increase as well.
A diverse customer base from government to corporate entities means a spectrum of needs, which Barrajon said Airbus is well positioned to meet with the flexibility of its products. Specifically, he pointed to the ACJ TwoTwenty, which offers 786 sq ft of cabin space and numerous configuration options. The company has also designed this platform to be capable of retrofit as it develops upgrades.
Frederic Lemos, head of Airbus Corporate Helicopters, cited the ACH145 as a best seller and the ACH160 emerging as “a new benchmark in the medium market.”
Lemos nodded to the recent market retraction, stating that the ACH125 and ACH130 have maintained their dominance at the light end of the helicopter market. The most recent complete financial figures for the company are from 2023, which Lemos said were inching closer to pre-Covid numbers of 2018 and 2019. The company is seeing levels “slightly under 200 helicopters–180 aircraft, more precisely," this year.
Bart Reijnen, president and head of Airbus Helicopters in North America, said on average, two-thirds of market revenue has been in the medium sector. “I say, in a humble way, that we have been dominating this market over the past years,” he said.
“2023 was a cycle that was a bit down compared to our expectations,” he continued, citing global markets, inflation, and political forces as potential contributors to this. “But at the same time, our market share was strong.”
“If we move to the next five years, we expect a market of around $200 million of deliveries per year,” he said.