Airbus Battles Aircraft Pressures

Airbus is facing one of its biggest tests yet: the need to meet its annual delivery target for 2025.

The planemaker set out hopes at the end of 2024 to hit 820 commercial aircraft deliveries this year, a steep jump from that year’s targets.

However, meeting the annual delivery target has been something Airbus has struggled to attain over the last couple of years due to numerous persistent challenges.

2025 was earmarked with the hope that stability would be brought to the production floor and long-standing supply chain complexities that have impacted the business.

However, almost immediately as the year commenced, it became clear it would be yet another 12 months full of operational challenges.

Many analysts had already cast doubt on the 820 target, for if it was unable to meet its 2023 and 2024 targets, then how would it achieve a further increase when there were already challenges impacting its operation?

Despite this, and with delivery numbers lower than required to meet the delivery quota, Airbus continued to move forward and not back down from the 820 delivery figure.

Now, Guillaume Faury, the CEO, has said that his hopes of 820 planes being delivered remain intact after progress was made across the board.

In the past, there have been several revisions to the yearly delivery target, but this is something Airbus has yet to move ahead with, instead backing its original plan formally.

Why The Struggles At Airbus?

For Airbus, there have been numerous challenges across its business, which have impacted production and, consequently, output rates. However, at the moment, it is engines that are causing the complications.

Speaking to reporters at the U.S Chamber of Commerce’s Global Aerospace Summit, Faury said that while the situation has slightly improved, they are still facing shortages from engine makers.

Engine makers need to be able to support Airbus if it wants to hit its 820 target, and Faury is confident that they will be able to as things begin to correct themselves.

A long-standing problem concerning the global engine crisis, which has been a concern for years, is starting to improve, especially for airlines that have had their new planes grounded.

However, for the planemaker, there still needs to be further improvement before meaningful increases across the production floor can take place.