Airbus Warns Suppliers Against Second-Guessing Production Targets

LONDON—Airbus Commercial Aircraft CEO Christian Scherer says the OEM is going “far deeper” into the supply chain than in the past to help its suppliers recover and enable rate growth in the coming years. 

“We need to do something different, and we are,” Scherer said July 21 on the eve of the Farnborough Airshow.

Scherer said that part of the problem has been suppliers second-guessing Airbus production targets. “We don’t want the supply chain to not believe what we are telling them” as far as output milestones are concerned, he said.

Airbus recently revised its 2024 production targets downward from 800 aircraft deliveries to 770. But Scherer pointed out that over a two-year 2023-24 period, the company will only miss its planned numbers by 1%. And it is only a few suppliers that have been causing problems, not the supply chain at large, he added.

Airbus has recently been hit by new delays at CFM International, which is building A320neo engines, and Safran, which delivers the A330neo landing gear. The Safran issues can be largely traced back to a strike at one of the company’s Canadian facilities that slowed down landing gear production and is now affecting the Airbus widebody program.

As Airbus battles supply chain issues, it is seeing some signs of declining airline yields “here and there,” Scherer said, but that has not yet had repercussions for aircraft demand.

Scherer said that Airbus is taking Comac seriously as a competitor. But he pointed out that the Chinese market continues to grow, and C919 deliveries are still at "very, very low quantities.” More importantly, Scherer argued, the C919 aircraft “has not brought anything new to the market.”