(News Bulletin 247) – The European aircraft manufacturer recorded a 10.5% drop in deliveries over the first three months of the year, despite a more dynamic month of March. The company’s first quarter financial results are likely to decline.

It is a key indicator for monitoring Airbus results: its aircraft deliveries. Most of the payment for a device takes place, in fact, when it is received by the client, even if a deposit is paid when the firm order is signed.

However, in the first quarter of 2023, these deliveries struggled to ramp up. For the first quarter as a whole, they amount to 127 aircraft, compared to 142 over the same period of 2022 (before an accounting restatement linked to the cancellation of two aircraft ordered by Russian companies that Airbus could not deliver ). In other words, deliveries fell by 10.5% over one year.

Airbus continues to experience logistical difficulties across its entire supply chain, with difficulties in obtaining parts to ensure its ramp-up. The conflict in Ukraine last year heightened these tensions. The executive chairman of Airbus, Guillaume Faury, had warned that this adverse environment would continue this year.

Cash burned in the first quarter?

The trajectory of aircraft deliveries at Airbus has never been linear. Boeing’s rival has a habit of working hard at the end of the year to meet its objectives. What he did not manage to achieve last year, however: the aircraft manufacturer had delivered over the whole of 2022 only 661 aircraft, a figure far from its initial objective of 720 aircraft. Guillaume Faury admitted that this poor performance had been “frustrating” for the teams in the European group.

The first quarter of 2023 was also bumpy. Most of the decline in group deliveries is explained by the very poor start to the year, Airbus having delivered only 20 aircraft in January. The pace then accelerated in February, with 46 units, then in March with 61 aircraft.

“The month of March is quite correct, and could have been much worse,” puts a financial analyst into perspective. “The problem comes mainly from the A350, with only five deliveries over the quarter, which is more like a monthly cadence. But, overall, the number of deliveries is in line with expectations,” he adds.

Bank Jefferies, for example, was counting on a figure of 126 aircraft deliveries, very close to that finally published by Airbus.

On the Paris Stock Exchange, the aircraft manufacturer lost some ground following this announcement, falling 0.2% around 10:40 a.m., in a rising market, the CAC 40 taking 0.9% to 7,386.79 points at same time.

The decline in Airbus deliveries in the first quarter augurs a decline in financial results over the period. Jefferies expects the group to burn cash in the first three months of the year while the company had generated cash flow of 213 million euros over the same period of 2022. Airbus will unveil its accounts for the first quarter on May 3.