(Paris) The historic crisis in global air transport caused by the pandemic does not stop the rise of Airbus: the European aircraft manufacturer returned to the green in 2021, making the largest profit in its history.
Posted at 7:33 a.m.
After two years in the red, the European aircraft manufacturer published a net profit of 4.2 billion euros (one euro = CA$1.45) on Thursday, beating its 2018 record (3.1 billion) while it was producing nearly a quarter more aircraft.
As a sign of its optimism, the group is aiming for 720 commercial aircraft deliveries in 2022, an increase of 18%.
“Our focus has shifted from managing the pandemic to recovery and growth,” said Airbus Executive Chairman Guillaume Faury, quoted in a statement.
The aircraft manufacturer is therefore returning to the payment of a dividend after having abolished it for the past two years.
The boss of the aircraft manufacturer attributes these “remarkable” results to the increase in deliveries of commercial aircraft in 2021 (611 aircraft, or 8% more than in 2020), to “the good performance” of space and defense activities as well as the helicopter division and “the attention given to cost reduction and competitiveness”.
Deliveries are a reliable indicator of profitability in aerospace, with customers paying most of the bill when they take possession of the planes.
Turnover increased by 4% to 52.1 billion euros, including 9.2 billion for defense activities.
From the start of the health crisis, Airbus had drastically reduced its production and announced 15,000 job cuts without layoffs – finally revised to nearly 10,000.
The group, which employed 126,000 people at the end of 2021, plans to recruit at least 6,000 this year.
Airbus, whose production had fallen by a third to 40 single-aisle A320 family (A319, A320 and A321) per month from April 2020, was producing 45 each month at the end of 2021 and plans to increase to 65 monthly aircraft in the summer. 2023, more than it has ever built.
“A very steep slope”
It even plans to mount up to 75 monthly devices in 2025, a subject whose feasibility and interest are the subject of intense discussions with its suppliers.
“For this year and next year, it’s already a very steep slope,” said Guillaume Faury, for whom Airbus has “a lot of work to do in 2022” in order to deliver 720 aircraft.
The global industry is facing logistical difficulties, rising prices for raw materials and energy and must “rehire”, he recalled during a press conference.
The aircraft manufacturer can count on a solid order book. This stood at the end of January at 7,036 devices, ensuring many years of production ahead of it.
While air traffic remained moribund in 2021 and is only expected to return to pre-crisis levels between 2023 for domestic flights and 2025 for long-haul flights, “it has become clear that people want to fly again and they do so as soon as the travel restrictions are lifted,” he said.
Despite a severely deteriorated financial situation, airlines have therefore continued to take delivery and order new aircraft to ensure that they will be equipped with aircraft that are more fuel efficient and therefore emit less CO2 to cope with the strong recovery in traffic expected in the long term.
Compared to its pre-crisis level, global air traffic is expected to double by 2050.
Faced with Airbus, the American giant Boeing ended in the red for the third consecutive year, with 4.3 billion dollars in net loss, weighed down by manufacturing defects in its long-haul 787 Dreamliner, the setbacks of its KC tanker plane -36 and its Starliner space capsule.
In addition to deliveries and savings measures, Airbus’ good results are also due to positive accounting adjustments totaling 447 million euros. They are due in particular to the end of the A380 program and the reversal of provisions linked to its restructuring plan.
However, Airbus recorded new additional costs (212 million euros) for its A400M military transport aircraft program.