Airbus Has More Bad News

Airbus’ continued struggles with the A220 are no closer to reaching their endpoint after fresh news.

Exclusive reporting by Reuters following comments from industry sources says Airbus will push back production targets because of the delayed assembly of A220 jets.

Those aircraft experiencing assembly delays are reportedly part of the production schedules for 2025 and 2026 and have been removed from the planning schedule.

Across North America, there have been reports of shortages of parts, including engines and other components. At the same time, industry sources also point to production-line errors that have further complicated matters.

Airbus had hoped to reach a target of producing 14 regional A220 aircraft by 2026, a key production metric for the program’s stability and profitability, but that now appears to be a challenge.

With more supply chain disruptions, sources indicate that Airbus would likely only hit the monthly target of 14 units by the end of 2026, ideally before December 2026. This timeframe is based on current forecasts, leaving a limited window to make this happen.

Analysts argue that with such pressure on supply chains in the United States and Canada, the timeframe is growing tighter by the day; therefore, there’s no room for error, as this could balloon to 2027.

Why Airbus A220 Production Rise Is Key

For many reasons, Airbus’ increased production of its A220 is critical, and the struggles to reach 14 units per month have become noticeable as the year has progressed.

While Airbus took the A220, formerly known as the CSeries, from Bombardier in 2018 after lengthy discussions, and it has sold well, the plane has continued to make losses and has been a problem child for the business.

Time and time again, Airbus has reaffirmed that a key way to make the A220 profitable is to increase the monthly output rate, thereby reducing aircraft assembly costs.

Additionally, with heightened interest from customers of a prospective A220-500, a higher-capacity model of the existing -300, the launch of this jet is also directly tied to production increases and profitability.

Airbus has not ruled out moving ahead with an A220-500 model at some point in the future, as airlines such as airBaltic and Breeze Airways have called for the aircraft, but it has also been open about the need to ensure profitability before anything else.

The planemaker cannot justify further investment in the program without stability in production and profitability. Achieving that, however, has been strenuous.

In August, the company’s CEO, Guillame Faury, was non-committal about the prospects of a stretch and said that many decisions on new endeavours such as these are made at the last moment, and many studies never get off the ground for many jets; this last hurdle is always the hardest.

The A220-500, as it has been known, is part of a push by airlines that operate the A220-300 to increase capacity without having to make the jump to the A320neo family.

For example, Breeze Airways, which believes it could expand its fleet to as many as 400 aircraft in the future, views the A320neo as not ideal for its operations, ultimately just another aircraft type that adds unnecessary complexity.

By Airbus moving ahead with this stretch, it would aim to counter the prospective sales of the Embraer E2 series and certainly eliminate any possible sales from COMAC, which, despite certification limitations, wants to rival the big three planemakers in this space at some point.