Story ID: 
Airbus Sustains Recovery Despite Russia War Headwinds
By: Charles Alcock
Caption: The European aerospace and defense group's CEO Guillaume Faury warned it will face more complexity and disruption risk during 2023.
Word Count: 588
Airbus continued its post-Covid recovery trajectory in 2022, albeit at a slower pace than it had hoped for due to the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine just under a year ago. Announcing year-end financial results on Thursday, the European aerospace and defense group’s CEO Guillaume Faury said the company now faces another year of complexity and disruption risk, albeit with less uncertainty than last year.
In the commercial airline sector, Airbus delivered 661 aircraft, which was 8 percent higher than in 2021. This improvement, combined with factors such as the strengthening U.S. dollar, was a significant factor in group revenues growing by 13 percent to €58.8 billion ($62.9 billion) and adjusted earnings 16 percent higher at €5.6 billion.
“But it was only half of the increase [in deliveries] that we had planned and that’s frustrating,” Faury stated during a press conference in Toulouse. “We think it will take us two years to achieve [in terms of market recovery] what we had planned to do in one.”
Among other impacts, the conflict with Russia has caused more supply-chain problems, undermining efforts to improve productivity. Airbus CFO Dominik Asam said the group continues to face strong headwinds in the supply chain, although it is aiming to achieve 720 commercial aircraft deliveries this year.
Gross commercial airliner orders and net orders after cancellations were significantly higher in 2022 at, respectively, 1,078 units (versus 771 in 2021) and 820 units (versus 507 in 2021). The order backlog stood at 7,239 aircraft as of 2022 year-end.
Deliveries in 2022 included a mix of 53 A220s, 516 A320s, 32 A330s, and 60 A350s. This yielded revenues that were 15 percent higher than in 2021.
The Airbus leadership team reported that it has adapted the production ramp-up trajectory in partnership with its suppliers to achieve a targeted monthly output rate of 65 aircraft by the end of 2024, and then 75 at the end of 2025. The new A321XLR long-range narrowbody is set to enter commercial service during the second quarter of this year.
The airframer now plans to gradually increase the monthly output of the A330 from three units at the end of 2022 to just four in 2024. It wants to boost deliveries of the A350 flagship from the current rate of six per month to nine by the end of 2025.
Airbus Helicopters achieved a slight increase in deliveries and revenues last year. The Airbus Defence & Space division saw revenues grow by 11 percent, mainly due to higher volumes of various military aircraft deliveries, including from the Eurodrone program.
Despite the difficulties faced in 2022, Airbus increased research and development spending in 2022 by 12 percent to reach €3.1 billion. Faury made it clear that investment in future technology will continue to be strong, particularly in pursuit of its multi-layered effort to achieve net zero carbon emissions in air transport.
Asked about the commercial potential for the hydrogen-powered airliners Airbus is developing under its ZeroE program, Faury said it is not inconceivable that by the 2050s or 2060s the company could be producing much higher numbers of these aircraft than it produces today. "This is a huge transition for the industry with huge potential and so we are taking steps today for decades later," he commented. "We are now at the beginning of aviation and once we have this technology it will be the perfect way to move people around the planet because you don't need infrastructure on the ground."