Airbus Se Ord

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Airbus full-year 2025 earnings release conference call. I'm Sharon, the operator for this conference. Please note that for the duration of the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there'll be an opportunity to ask questions. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Jean-Christophe Inou, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Sharon, and a very warm welcome to everyone joining us today. We are here to dive into the Airbus Fulier 2025 results, and I'm thrilled to be with our CEO, Guillaume Faury, and our CFO, Thomas Taffer, with us to break down the numbers and take your questions. This call is planned to last one hour and 15 minutes, including Q&A. If you're joining us via the webcast, a replay will be available for you on our website. Speaking about the website, You can already find the supporting information package there that includes today's slide and the detailed financial statements. Before we start, let me remind you that we will be making some forward-looking statements today. I encourage you to take a look at the safe harbor statement in our presentation slides. It's important stuff. Please have a quick read. And with that, let's get things started. Guillaume, the floor is yours.

Thank you, JC, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm happy to be here in Toulouse with Thomas to run you through our full year 2025 results. 2025 was a landmark year characterized by a very strong demand for our products and services in both civil and defense. While we successfully navigated in a complex and dynamic global environment, Our primary focus was managing supply constraints that created a desynchronization between production and delivery throughout the year. Against this backdrop, the year was marked by both resilience and record financials. In defense, we're observing great momentum and our large portfolio is perfectly aligned with the capability needs. We do this by delivering mission-critical solutions and being the long-term partner of choice for nations in Europe and worldwide. On the strategic front, we're advancing industrial consolidation with Leonardo and Thales to create a world-class space leader. This initiative is key to achieving the global scale and operational depth required in today's fast-evolving global market. In commercial aircraft, sustained global demand continues to drive the expansion of our industrial footprint. A major milestone in this journey was the acquisition of certain Spirit Aerosystems work packages with a closing on the 8th of December, which allowed us to take control of this production flow. And Thomas will speak more about it later. The A320 panel quality issue that hit us in December was also a significant event that put pressure on our ability to deliver in an already back-end loaded year. We took immediate steps to address the challenge, putting a strong focus on quality, and therefore unfortunately impacting 2025 deliveries. We expect the residual operational impact to be contained and spread mainly over the first half of the year. That said, our operations do not function in isolation. While we have secured a critical portion of our trajectory, some supply chain tensions continue, notably with the engine maker Pratt & Whitney. On the F320 family, Pratt & Whitney's failure to commit to the number of engines ordered by Airbus is negatively impacting this year's delivery guidance and the ramp-up trajectory into next year. As a consequence, we now expect to reach a rate of between 70 and 75 aircraft a month by the end of 2027, stabilizing at rate 75 thereafter. In this context, I'm very proud of what Team Airbus achieved. We delivered on our commitments, meeting our updated guidance with 793 deliveries. Our performance in the fourth quarter was particularly strong with 286 aircraft delivered, and we closed the year with a record year-end backlog. This result demonstrates our collective resilience and our unwavering focus on excellence in everything and everyone. Now, looking at our 2025 financial performance, our EBIT adjusted stood at 7.1 billion euros, reflecting our commercial aircraft deliveries and the performance at the helicopter and defense and space divisions. This is also reflected in our free cash flow before customer financing, which stood at 4.6 billion euros. These results led to a record net income of 5.2 billion euros, that supports our 2025 dividend proposal of €3.2 per share. With all that in mind, let's take a closer look at 2025 and moving to our commercial environment, starting with commercial aircraft. In 2025, passenger traffic expanded across all regions while air cargo demand remained resilient. This year was another commercially successful year with repeat orders and key new customers in both the single aisle and wide-body campaigns. We booked 1,000 gross orders, including 390 in Q4. On the A220, we booked 49 gross orders, and we see positive momentum. Looking at the A320 family, we booked 656 gross orders. This brings our backlog to 7,163 aircraft out of which around 75% are for the A321. Moving to the white bodies, on the A330, we booked 102 gross orders, another stronger confirming the high demand for this very versatile aircraft. And finally, on the A350, we booked 193 gross orders underpinning the good commercial momentum, and it was a record year for our freighter. Net orders amounted to 889 aircraft, including the 111 cancellations compared to the 1,000, which were largely anticipated and already embedded in our backlog valuation as of December 2024. Our backlog in units increased to a year-end record of 8,754 aircraft. At group level, Our backlog stood at 619 billion euros in 2025, including a strong book-to-bill above one for all businesses, as well as the weakening of the US dollar. Looking at helicopters, in 2025, we booked 536 net orders, compared to 450 a year earlier, with a book-to-bill well above one, both in units and value. including a strong contribution from the military segment, as well as good order intakes from services. We celebrated orders of 100 Airbus helicopters by the Spanish Ministry of Defense, the largest helicopter purchase by this customer. Additionally, we want to mention the Super Puma family, for which we signed a contract with the Royal Moroccan Air Force for 10 H225Ms in the second half of the year. we also saw Germany reinforcing their commitment by exercising the contractual option for 20 additional H145M helicopters. Finally, looking at unmanned air systems, Airbus has been awarded a contract from the French DGA for the production of six VSR700 systems, while also receiving a framework contract by the European Maritime Safety Agency for the Flexrotor, our modern vertical takeoff and landing aircraft overall we continue to see very strong momentum in particular on the military markets and we remain focused on our responsibility to deliver on expectations including ramping up finally moving to airbus defense and space 2025 reflected one more year of record order intake which stood at 17.7 billion euros corresponding to a book to build of around 1.3. Key orders recorded in Q4 reflect several strategic wins, particularly in our air power and space systems business units. Starting with air power, we observed a good commercial momentum with Spain, including contracts for 18 C-295s, plus the development and implementation of the new integrated training system for the Spanish combat pilots. Let me also mention that 2025 was an excellent year for the Eurofighter program. Notably, we recorded an order for 20 aircraft from Germany, the activation of eight options from Italy, and we also welcomed Turkey to the program with 20 aircraft. To meet this growing demand, the program has already announced the first production capacity expansion, transitioning from rate 14 to rate 20 per year. Moving to space systems, Airbus was selected by UTELSAT to build a further 340 one-web low Earth orbit satellites, LEO satellites, complementing the first 100 recorded in 2024. The 440 satellites will be produced at the Airbus Defence and Space Toulouse facility and will enhance the one-web first-generation fleet. In addition, we are proud to highlight a return to the market of one-sat satellites with an additional order from Oman's national satellite operator, providing its position in the telecommunications market, proving its position. Finally, within our connected intelligence business line, we continue to observe good order momentum throughout the year, in particular in defense, digital, and cyber. The success of the division is the result of our transformation efforts, which ensured an improved performance As we move into 2026, we remain focused on the division's long-term competitiveness and profitability. Now, let me say some words on FCAS, Future Combat Air System. The need for an ambitious European FCAS is unchanged. We believe an ambition of this scale can only be delivered through cooperation, fostering operational interoperability, and lifecycle synergies for European air forces. We believe that the deadlock of a single pillar should not jeopardize the entire future of this high-tech European capability, which will bolster our collective defense. If mandated by our customers, we would support a two-fighter solution and are committed to playing a leading role in such a reorganized FCAS delivered through European cooperation. Overall, I want to emphasize the commercial performance of both Airbus helicopters and Airbus Defence and Space that delivered record order intake in value in line with our ambition presented in June. Specifically, Defence orders excluding the joint ventures, MBDA, Arian Group, the order excluding those joint ventures reached more than €20 billion, meaning around plus 50% upside year-on-year, ensuring robust future growth. And now Thomas will take you through our financials. Thomas?

Yes, thank you, Guillaume, and hello, ladies and gentlemen. I'm now on page six of the presentation, and I'll take you through our financial performance. Now, as you can see on the page, our financial year 2025 revenues increased to $73.4 billion, up 6% year-on-year, mainly reflecting the higher contribution from our divisions, the strong services volumes across our businesses and a higher level of deliveries, partially offset by the US dollar depreciation. On R&D, as you can see on the upper right hand side, our expenses stood at 3.2 billion euros in 2025, slightly lower than in 2024, as we continue to benefit from the prioritization of our activities this year. And R&D is expected to increase in 2026 globally in line with revenues but notably to support the defense portfolio acceleration. Onto EBIT adjusted on page seven of the presentation. Our financial year 2025 EBIT adjusted increased to 7.1 billion from 5.4 billion in 2024. And of course, let me remind you that in 2024, after the completion of the in-depth technical review of our space programs, we recorded a total charge of 1.3 billion euros. In the full year of 2025, the higher commercial aircraft deliveries, together with a more favorable hedge rate and lower R&D expenses, were partially offset by the impact of tariffs, of which the vast majority occurred in Q4. And the result also reflects a stronger performance in both divisions. The level of EBIT adjustments totaled a net negative $1 billion, and you can see this on the right-hand side in the box, and the adjustments include a negative $624 million impact from the dollar working capital mismatch and balance sheet revaluation, mainly reflecting the mechanical impact coming from the difference between transaction date and delivery date, of which negative $47 million in Q4. It also includes a negative $188 million related to the acquisition and integration of certain Spirit Aero Systems work packages, of which $100 million in Q4, and it includes a negative $105 million related to the Airbus defense and space restructuring recorded already in Q1. On top of that, negative $73 million related to our A400M recorded in Q4, and finally a negative $56 million of other costs, including compliance and M1A, of which negative $45 million in Q4. So all this takes our full year 2025 EBIT reported to 6.1 billion euros. Now let me take a moment to bring some more clarity on the negative 188 million adjustment related to spirit error systems. This notably includes a 738 million gain resulting from the settlement of the so-called pre-existing relationship as described in our financial statements. In other words, the termination of the favorable contractual conditions. And this is offset by provisions for onerous contracts and an impairment of $500 million related to the A220 program. And this A220 impairment is primarily linked to the impact of the acquisition of certain Spirit AeroSystems work packages with a revisited or revised projected cost structure and ramp up trajectory for the program. The financial result was a positive $268 million and mainly reflects the revaluation of certain equity investments and revaluation of financial instruments, partially offset by the evolution of the US dollar. Now, the tax rate on the core business continues to be around 27%. However, the effective tax rate is 21.9% with positive effects from the revaluation of certain equity investments and from the settlement of the pre-existing relationship with spirit error system, which both are not subject to income tax. And this is partially offset by the negative effects of the French surtax and the deferred tax asset impairments. For 2026, we expect the French surtax to be in the same order of magnitude as in 2025, and that is true for both P&L and cash-wise. So that the resulting net income is 5.2 billion euros, with earnings per share reported at 6.61 euros, and our full year 2025 EPS adjusted stood at 6.89 euros, based on an average of 790 million shares. So this strong EPS performance marks a historical record for our company and supports our proposal for a dividend of €3.20 per share for 2025, corresponding to a nearly 50% payout ratio in the very high end of our recently updated dividend policy. And it also reflects the confidence in our future financial performance. Now onto our US dollar exposure coverage, and I'm on page eight of the presentation. In the financial year 2025, $23.6 billion of forwards matured with the associated EBIT impact and euro conversions realized at a blended rate of $1.19 versus $1.21 in 2024. And in 2025, we also implemented 16.7 billion U.S. dollars of new coverage at a blended rate of $1.19. As a result, our total U.S. dollar coverage portfolio in U.S. dollar stands at 75.8 billion U.S. dollars with an average blended rate of $1.22 as compared to 82.8 billion U.S. dollars at a blended rate of $1.21 at the end of 2024. And in 2025, as in 2024, we continue to streamline our US dollar coverage and continued implementing colors with an addition of 3.9 billion US dollars in the financial year 2025. And here let me remind you that the colors will at this stage remain at around a single digit percentage of the overall coverage. And in addition, I would like to say that these colors are reported at their least favorable rate and as a result, increase the total blended hedge rate of our portfolio, hence providing a protected view. And our portfolio is currently being adjusted by implementing some rollovers to reflect the delivery target for 2026 and the delivery profile. Now onto a more detailed look at our free cash flow on page nine. Our free cash flow before customer financing was 4.6 billion euros in the financial year 2025. And this mainly reflects the level of deliveries, the commercial momentum across all our businesses resulting in healthy PDP inflows offset by the plant inventory buildup associated with the ramp up across the programs. The A400M was broadly neutral from a free cash flow perspective in 2025, which is a success. And our financial year 2025 CupEx was 4 billion euros. And this reflects the investments in expanding and upgrading our industrial footprint. And to support the ramp up and the successful integration of the Spirit Aero Systems work packages, we expect our CAPEX to continue to increase in 2026. The free cash flow was positive 4.8 billion, including customer financing for 0.2 billion euros. And we continue to see a diverse and competitive financing landscape and currently we expect sufficient liquidity to support our 2026 deliveries. Our net cash position, as you can see on the right-hand side of the chart, stood at 12.2 billion as of the end of December, also reflecting a weaker dollar environment, and our liquidity is now at around 35 billion euros. So in 2025, we delivered, in our view, very strong financials across the board in a context of many challenges, And with that, I would like to hand it back to Guillaume.

Thank you, Thomas. And let's start with commercial aircraft. In 2025, we delivered 793 aircraft to 91 customers. And looking at the situation by aircraft family and starting with the A220, where we delivered 93 aircraft, reflecting a strong growth. The ramp-up is ongoing and still paced by the integration of Spirit Aerosystems work packages and the balance between supply and demand. As we continue to make what I would call tactical adjustments on this ramp-up trajectory, we are now targeting a rate of 13 aircraft a month in 2028. Our teams continue to work on the road to reach breakeven, and we remain focused on engine durability improvements while ensuring operational efficiency. On the A320, we delivered 607 aircraft, of which 387 A321s, representing 64% of deliveries for the A320 family, 64% of A321s. We are very pleased that our newest aircraft, the A321XLR, continue attracting new operators, this aircraft with its unique capabilities is proving to be a key asset acting as a route opener for our customers. The ramp up towards the monthly production rate of 75 aircraft is ongoing. In 2026, we see shortages of engines from Pratt & Whitney not matching our needs nor our orders. That will limit our aircraft deliveries and this is really disappointing. In 2027, they must significantly step up their deliveries, which we expect. And as a result, we expect to reach a rate of between 70 and 75 aircraft a month by the end of 2027, stabilizing at rate 75 thereafter. So there were 93 A220s, 607 A320s. That makes a total of 700 single aisle and then again 93 on the white bodies easy to remember so on wine bodies we deliver 93 aircraft of which 36 A330s and 57 A350s including the first deliveries to new operators on the A330 moving forward no change we target to reach rate 5 in 2029 to meet customer demand and you see this is a strong demand And on the A350, no change either. We continue to target rate 12 in 2028. In a nutshell, we continue to work with all of our stakeholders, such as cabin suppliers, but more importantly, with our narrow-body engine suppliers, particularly Pratt & Whitney, to fully enable the ramp-up trajectory. Now, let's look at the financials for our commercial aircraft business. Revenues increased 4% year-on-year, mainly reflecting the higher number of deliveries and growth in services, partially offset by the US dollar depreciation. EBIT adjusted increased to 5.5 billion euros from the 5.1 billion euros in 2024, driven by the increase in deliveries with a more favorable edge rate and lower R&D expenses being partially offset by the impact of tariffs. Page 12, looking at helicopters, in 2025 we delivered 392 helicopters, that's 31 more than in 2024. Revenues increased around 13%, 9 billion euros, reflecting a strong performance from programs and services growth. EBIT adjusted increased to 925 million euros, reflecting the higher deliveries as well as growth in services, as I said already. and let's complete the review with defense and space revenues increased 11 percent year-on-year to 13.4 billion euros driven by higher volumes across all three business units this resulted in a bit of 798 million euros also supported by improved profitability in line with the midterm trajectory and the results of the successful transformation plan on the a400m program A contract amendment was signed with OCAR in the fourth quarter of 2025 to advance seven deliveries for France and Spain and to further increase the visibility on the program's production. In light of uncertainties regarding the level of aircraft orders, Airbus continues to assess the potential impact on the program manufacturing activities. Risk on the qualification of technical capabilities and associated costs remain stable. And before we move to our guidance and key priorities, Thomas will go through the acquisition of certain Spirit Aerosystems work packages, which was completed, as we said, in 2025.

Absolutely. As you have seen in December, we successfully closed the acquisition of certain Spirit Aerosystems work packages and transitioned to day one. And we have begun consolidating the five new sites that are located in the United States, Europe, and North Africa, in order to secure operational stability and continuity. Regarding the financial outlook, our assessment has evolved as we gained control of this production flow. And while the 2026 EBIT adjusted impact remains consistent with previous guidance, the headwind of 2026 is slightly higher than what we had initially anticipated. And on free cash flow, we expect a further deterioration in 2026, mainly due to the transaction closing shift and the investment needed to support the ramp-up. And from now, these figures will be included into the broader program performance. The strategic rationale remains clear. The integration is fundamental to de-risking the A220 and A350 ramp-up and to make sure that we are on a competitive trajectory. And with that, I would like to hand it back to you, Guillaume.

Yeah. Page 16, onto our guidance. And as the basis for its 2026 guidance, the company assumes no additional disruptions to global trade or the world economy, air traffic, the supply chain, its internal operations, and ability to deliver products and services. The company's 2026 guidance is before M&A and includes the impact of currently applicable tariffs. On that basis, the company targets to achieve in 2026 around 870 commercial aircraft deliveries and EBIT adjusted around 7.5 billion euros and a free cash flow before customer financing of around 4.5 billion euros. And to conclude, I want to look forward. Our primary focus remains on the ramp up with no compromise on the highest standard of quality in everything we do. On defense, the priority is to continue to strengthen our global leading position by leveraging our unique portfolio of products and our international footprint. It means playing a leading role in a fighter project, continuing the good momentum on military products and services, as well as strengthening sovereignty and competitiveness in space. We are committed to reinforcing a strong commercial position across all our businesses. continuing on our leadership in commercial aircraft, defense, space, and helicopters alike. Finally, we remain committed to leading the future of aerospace with a focus on the next single-line generation. Our vision for the future is anchored to our sustainable aerospace ambition while we continue to deliver profitable growth. And before taking your questions, allow me to say a word to welcome this year, Lars Wagner, and to lead on the one hand our commercial aircraft and on the other one, our helicopter businesses. They bring deep operational expertise, industrial knowledge, and a real strategic vision. And a big thank you and my sincere gratitude and congratulations to Christian Scherer for all he did over his 40 plus years at Airbus and to Bruno Even for what has been achieved at helicopters under his leadership. All the best to you both. And now we are ready to take your questions.

Thank you, Guillaume and Thomas. We are now ready to open up the floor for your questions. In order to allow an efficient Q&A session, let me set a couple of guidelines. First, please introduce yourself and your company before you dive in. We ask that you limit yourself to two questions so that we can keep things fair for everyone in the queue. And finally, a small favor for the speakers. Please try to keep a steady pace and speak clearly. It really helps us and everyone listening in to fully capture our question. All right, children, let's get the ball rolling. Could you please explain the Q&A procedure for our participants?

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone keypad. Thank you. We will now go to our first question. One moment, please. And your first question today comes from the line of David Perry from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Yes. Good morning, everyone. I'm not used to being first. I just had one question, please. The guidance probably implies that the margin will be down in commercial aircraft in 2026, and I'm just wondering if that is due to any one-off items, maybe the Spirit integration, and how you see the margin kind of evolution thereafter, if you're willing to comment. Thank you.

So, David, on that question, What we're seeing is that the margin in commercial is not particularly affected on a per aircraft basis, of course. But what we do see is that the delivery trajectory is lower than what we had originally anticipated, absent the issue that we're having with Pratt. And on top of that, you're making a correct remark. We are having two headwinds that we have to keep in mind. One is the FX. Headwind which is roughly two cents. You know the math. It's roughly 150 million Percent so that gives you a rough 0.3 billion of headwind and secondly we said we would face a low triple digit headwind from the spirit integration you can attach a number to that and of course those two items do play a role when you build the ebit either bridge from 2025 to 2026 apps and then that You know that we said for R&D, we would expect an increase in 2026 as well. So of course, we're continuing our lead program. But on the other hand, we have to make the necessary investments in R&D for the future programs that we have on the agenda. So I would say those are the building blocks that you have to take into account for 2026. The margin on an aircraft basis is healthy, and we're happy with what we have achieved in terms of order intake in 2025.

Okay, very clear. Thank you.

Thank you. Your next question today comes from the line of Benjamin Healan from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Yeah, morning, guys. I hope you're both well. The first question for me is on free cash flow. It does come across a lot weaker in 2026 than I was expecting. So could you go through the bridge a little bit? What are the big moving pieces that we can expect there? And then second question is, is this situation with Pratt, what can you actually do with this situation? And how is it impacting your thinking of

you know engine supply and engine suppliers going forwards thank you let me maybe start with the with the free cash flow bridge so the main item that you should keep in mind here is spirit and again I'm coming back to what I said in the presentation we see a deterioration relative to what we assumed before and Remember before we said it could be up to a mid triple digit negative amount. We see this is going to be more negative, mainly because of the late closing of the transaction. So it's a spillover effect between 2025 and 2026. But of course, now with that effect, we're more talking high triple digit amount in terms of CapEx and investments that we have to make into Spirit. That is the main item that you should keep in mind for the 2025-2026 bridge. Other than that, there is continued investment into inventories that we have to make to make sure that our trajectory is intact. And finally, of course, the impact of Spirit is also negative on free cash flow because we are not excluding that we might have to build gliders depending on the visibility that we have on engine deliveries So this is also a negative that we face. Other than that, I would say the positive come, of course, from the positive development of our divisions and the, as I said, good margin that we have on a per aircraft basis in commercial.

Maybe on the engine side, good morning, Ben. Well, that's the one difficult thing we have to face looking at 2026, is that we have a shortage of engines from Pratt & Whitney compared to what was expected and compared to accepted orders from brandon whitney for deliveries of engines in 2026 for 2026 deliveries that's the one significant thing we have to manage we want to enforce our contractual rights but that will obviously take some time and we had to significantly reduce the number of aircraft planned for deliveries in 2026 due to that situation with some implications obviously on profitability and free cash flow. Our understanding is that it's an issue that will mainly impact 2026, probably to some extent 2027. We are discussing with Pratt obviously as you can imagine on a daily basis on those topics and that should go away most likely after 2027. That's why we had to adjust slightly the perspective for reaching the rate 75. We believe we continue to pursue reaching rate 75 by end of next year, but due to these uncertainties on engine volumes remaining for 2027 from Pratt, we say that we will now reach between 70 to 75 aircraft, A320 aircraft per month, by the end of next year. So we have to sort of bite the bullet in 2026 of that very painful and unsatisfactory situation with impact on 2026, but working hard to restore a good situation moving forward. And that's the work ongoing with Pratt.

Thank you. Super clear. Just a very quick follow-up for Thomas. How should we think about the spirit cash flow drag in 2027 and into 2028? Is there any color that you can provide how that high triple digit will evolve? Thank you.

I would say in 2027, the guidance that we originally gave to you was the same as for 2026, so up to a mid-triple digit. There might be a small deterioration also in 2027. But again, I think the visibility is not super high for that. We're working hard to not make it too negative of a drag. The important thing is the focus on 26.

Thank you, Ben. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Your next question today comes from the line of Ross Law from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Hi, morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. So maybe a bit of a bigger picture question and just on why engine supplies are impacting the ramp up. Obviously, I understand the impact deliveries, but not necessarily the manufacturing of aircraft. So is the softening of the ramp up reflecting risk around the engine supplies medium term beyond 26? Or are there other bottlenecks that are driving the slight sort of ramp up delay on A320? And then just one on defense and space, good margin in the full year, especially in Q4. How sustainable should we view this?

Thanks. I'll start with the first question. So the shortages of engines are impacting 2026 and to an extent that looks more limited, but still to be completely understood, also 2027. That's the reason for slightly changing the moment of reaching rate 75. The fact that we intend to reach between 70 and 75 by end of next year is the Pratt & Whitney engine situation that is not limited by other supply issues where we have a ramp-up trajectory that is well supported. And beyond that point and the Pratt & Whitney issue, we continue to target the same rate 75, the stability, and being supported by the supply chain. So it's really this one issue, unexpected issue, at least in the dimension and the timing where it comes, that is impacting 26. We think to a more limited extent 2027, and most likely not beyond.

And on the margin of defense and space, you know our view is never over-interpret the margin of a single quarter. So I would rather look at the margin of defense and space for the full year 2026 at 25, which we found very satisfactory and we think it is sustainable and will be improved. So my comment would be, you know, we said defense and space will achieve a mid to high single digit margin by 2028. And I would say we're absolutely on track to achieve that and very pleased with what we have achieved already in 2025. Great.

Thanks so much.

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Chloe Lemaire from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Hello, Chloe, are you on mute?

Apologies, I was on mute. So good morning. I have two questions, please. The first one is on the 2026 delivery guidance, which seems to imply A through 20, slightly below 60 per month, despite commentary that production rate had been exceeding that level last year. So how are you dealing with supplier, which were likely prepared for further ramp? Is just glider production the way to think about it or any other measures you're taking to mitigate this? The second one would be on FCAS. Could you remind us of the current revenues that you are generating from the program? Is it all NGF-related? And beyond the NGF, what would be your involvement and the opportunity set there? Thank you.

On the 2026 A320, we are in a ramp-up, and we continue to grow production rates compared to 2025. We will have to adjust the level of production and the expected number of gliders over the year as we navigate the discussion and the difficult negotiation with Pratt & Whitney on the volumes. We don't give up as we are not satisfied with the low level of production. of volume on engines that they are committing on now, which is insufficient and, as I said already, below the order they had accepted for 2026. And it's very much also a function of the entry into 2027. So we're on a ramp up on the A320. It's indeed a difficult situation to manage with the other suppliers that are ramping up according to the design, the designated trajectory. But again, we expect to grow significantly in 2027, and therefore the long-term hump-up or the mid-term hump-up is not challenged, and reaching the rate 75 is in the cards, and we continue to count on our supply chain to deliver on this objective as we have the demand, as we have the industrial system in place, and as the very vast majority of the supply chain is in line with this objective.

And on FCAS, I mean, remember, it is a project in the early phase of the development, so there's no material revenues attached to it. The order of magnitude that I would give to you is a low triple-digit number, but that is, of course, mainly covering the cost that we're having in the development phase. So, therefore, it's not a material revenue item in our OP period.

Thank you.

Thank you. Your next question today comes from the line of Sam Burgess from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Good morning and thanks for taking the questions. Firstly, just to return to the Pratt & Whitney conversations you're having, what are the company actually telling you about the real bottlenecks that they are dealing with and their concrete plan to rectify them? Just any colour there would be really helpful. And then the second one would be just around the defence business, clearly performing very well and just continuing to see very high demand. I mean, a lot has changed in the world and in particular in European defence. since you presented at the Paris Airshow. Have your expectations for that business evolved?

Thanks. So on the Pratt & Whitney, which is the single more important topic we are dealing with, I think Pratt & Whitney have explained their situation and the challenge that comes from the number of aircraft, so-called AOGs, with their airline customers. This number has not gone down as fast as they were targeting and expecting, and as the customers were expecting. And Pratt & Whitney want to allocate a large part of their efforts, of their material and engines, to supporting the fleet. negatively impacting Airbus in its ability to ramp up. We are very dissatisfied with this. We don't agree with this. They have to increase outputs more than what they've done so far to be able to serve both needs, but in particular the needs of Airbus and resigning on volumes on orders that had been accepted in the short term has obviously very negative consequences for us on managing the situation with impacts on our own ability to deliver, our own profitability, of course, and managing the inventory and therefore the free cash flow that goes with it. Therefore, the guidance we're delivering for 2026, as you can imagine, we're in dispute with Pratt & Whitney on this. We want to enforce our contractual rights, but this will obviously take time. And maybe for defense, Thomas?

I mean, for defense, I would agree with you. Things are accelerating, and I would just reiterate what Guillaume said also in the speech. We had an order intake for defense, if you take the defense part of helicopters and the pure defense part of Airbus and defense in space, excluding civil satellites, and it was over $22 billion in 2025, an uplift of 50% relative to the previous year. So I think that shows the good momentum. I would say we are at least on the trajectory with defense and space that we had laid out in Paris, but of course it would be premature to give some new guidance, but we're very pleased with the trajectory that we currently have.

And maybe we can say that in our business in defense and space, on large systems, it takes time from order intake to delivery and therefore generating turnover and profit, but it supports very much the long-term trajectory we have for defense and space. and with the competitiveness of our products. So it's really putting us, obviously, on the high side of the trajectory.

Thank you. As a reminder, please limit yourselves to two questions at a time. This includes sub-questions. We will now go to the next question. One moment, please. And your next question comes from the line of Ian Douglas Pennant from UBS. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning. Yes, it's Ian Douglas-Penance at UBS. Thanks for taking my question. First, you made some comments in your prepared remarks on the panel issue having impacts in H1. The delivery rate that we've seen in January and from what we can see from data providers from February seems to be tracking reasonably slow. Is that related to the panel issue? entirely or in the vast majority, if that's the panel issue, or should we read other issues into that, including Pratt & Whitney? And my second question is, have you communicated with suppliers to lower their production rates for 2026 already? Or is that something you plan to do? Or will you not lower your communication to them? And that's why your free cash flow guidance is where it is because of inventory build. Thank you.

So the January and February deliveries are indeed quite low. It is driven by the management of the panel issue, not only but primarily. It's not related to engine topics at the beginning of this year. Indeed, we have to manage the supply chain situation. It's a bit of a case-by-case, supplier-by-supplier adjustment. as we want to continue to fully support the ramp-up in the outer areas for the A320, as we want to best manage the situation with the supplier to not have shocks in their production rates and two non-linear situations with the suppliers to maintain the reliability the supply independently from the Pratt & Whitney situation. As we will navigate and continue to manage the relationship with Pratt and that discussion, we also want to preserve the possibility to have better news at a later stage and to get from Pratt more than what they are telling us today. That's the complex tension between ramping up with uncertainty on engines, but still the need to be there in 2027 and beyond. with the right level of volume, the reliability of the supply chain that has done the investment, the ramp up. So that's indeed the difficult tension that is reflected in the few numbers we give for the guidance that makes the operational management of the ramp up trajectory for the 320 in 2026 and probably beginning of 2027 quite challenging. We want to smoothen these difficulties for the supply chain, but we have obviously to adapt here and there, case by case, supplier by supplier to optimize the situation.

Thank you. Could I just ask a follow-up on that? So if Pratt & Whitney do not change what they've committed to or they're promising you today and continue this disappointment, how many gliders do you expect you'd end the year with? I don't know whether you want to give a precise number or just kind of rough indication. That'd be very helpful.

I will not give a number. What I would like to say is we don't plan gliders for gliders. We plan we do gliders when we are surprised in the short term by an issue and we can't put engines on planes that were already in the production pipeline, or when we strongly believe, or we reasonably believe, that the engines we don't get at a point will come later. And in that case, we produce gliders voluntarily. But when we are in a planned trajectory of deliveries of engines, in that case, with little hope for change, we don't produce gliders for producing gliders. So that's why the ongoing negotiation, the ongoing discussions with Pratt are very important as we need visibility to plan. And today we have given a guidance to the market for 2026 that relies on what we, on the current status of the negotiation and the impact it has on inventory, on buildup of planes. And we'll see later in the year whether we want to end up 2026 with a strong or limited number of gliders and how we anticipate some upside and the risk we're taking. That's today with a reasonable prudence in the guidance we're giving, but it's obviously something that will be managed over the year. We're just in February at the moment.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Your next question today comes from the line of Douglas Harnett from Bernstein. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Thank you. First question is on the A350, and we've only seen two deliveries so far this year. Could you help us understand what rate you want to be at for the year, and is the shortfall primarily due to spirit issues, interior certification, or just interiors? falling behind. So first question on the A350. And then second, if we go back to last year on the A320 family, the problem was engines from CFM. Can you update us on how things stand right now with respect to the LEAP?

Yeah, maybe I'll start with this one. The issues we had last year with CFM were linked to the sequence of deliveries over the year. As you remember, they had some industrial challenges. There was a seven-week strike at Safran, as far as I remember, and we found ourselves with the shortage of engine on the short term with the understanding that came true later in the year that CFM would recover and finally deliver on the number of engines we were expecting by around mid of November. This is what happened. That led to a very back-loaded year in terms of delivery or contributed to a very back-loaded year of delivery, but this is now behind us and we are with a leap on a nominal situation where we get engines when we need and when we expect to get in 2026 the number of engines that were committed by CFM and they have not modified their outlook, their projection for 2026. So we think we have a reliable source of engines from CFM from the leap this year, contrarily to Pratt & Whitney. So the engine issue that we're expecting for 2026 are solely on the Pratt & Whitney engine when it comes to the F320 family. On the A350, I have no specific warning when it comes to the ramp-up. You know that we had a lot of deliveries in the last quarter and in the last month of 2025, so we focused very strongly on those deliveries, and we have now to resume a normal pace of deliveries for the planes in general from the A350. The very back-loaded and very challenging industrial situation we had end of last year, is negatively impacting the beginning of the year, so we have a rather slow start. It's not very satisfactory, but it doesn't impact the ability to deliver the rates and the number of planes we expect for this year, at least from what I can see today. Okay, thank you.

Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone keypad. We will now go to the next question. And your next question today comes from the line of Olivier Brochet from Rothschild and Company. Please go ahead.

Yes. Good morning, Guillaume and Thomas. I would have two questions, please. The first one continuing on the previous one on A350. Can you share a bit more about the signals that you see for production? Seats have been an uncomfortable spot for the industry. Spirit is a challenge to integration. Engines have been so far no problem at all for A330 and A350. Do you have any concerns there, any comfort on the contrary that you could share? And the second question is, you mentioned that you would be happy to have two aircraft for NGF. Do you have any view on what the French position is on that topic, please?

So starting with the A350, So 2026 is a year of ramp up of the A350. Indeed, we had difficulties with interiors, mainly with seats in the past two years that has impacted the ability to deliver engines, but not impacting the ramp up itself. It's not impacting the ability to produce an A350 aircraft. It's impacting the ability to do the customization the cabin and interiors, and then to deliver to customers with the full cabin completed. We find solutions one by one in that case, and in many cases it's also between the airline and its interior or seat supplier in the frame of what we call BA fees, so buyer furnished equipment coming directly from the equipment supplier to the airline. I don't have specific warnings when it comes to the ramp-up of the 350. contrary to what we had two years ago, where we had to actually postpone by sort of a year the start of ramp-up because of the Spirit situation. What we have from Spirit going from last year to deliveries this year is supporting the plans we have. So it's all about execution, obviously, this year. I'm not suggesting there's no complexity in what we do on a wide-body aircraft, but I don't have, at this point in time, significant warnings when it comes to our ability to ramp up on the F-350. On the F-CAS, well, we have not said that we would be happy with two fighters. What we've said is, would it be the demand of our customers? That's a scenario that we could live with and that we would support in the frame of European cooperation. We are deeply convinced of the need and the relevance of European cooperation in this future combat system capabilities. That's what we think we do reasonably well. We're here to serve cooperation programs, and we are ready to take a leading role if the program has to move in a direction that is not the one of today. So we are a bit in a wait-and-see mode to see how things will move forward on the NGF.

Thank you.

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Ken Herber from RBC. Please go ahead.

Yes, good morning. Thank you for taking the question. Two questions. My first question is, how confident are you now that you've owned the SPIRIT assets for just a few months here that the guidance fully reflects the downside risk on both both EBIT and free cash flow, or could there be incremental risk as you continue to invest and dig into that business? And then my second question is, again, just on the A350, can you give any more specifics on what kind of ramp we should see this year in deliveries as you think about still hitting 12 in 2028? Thank you.

So maybe let me start with the spirit question. I would say we have a reasonably good visibility because, as you said, it's only been two months that we really own the business, but we have been at the spirit side with many people already before. So I would say the assessment that we have made is mainly a deterioration for free cash flow, and that is because of the late closing and the spillover of things that already should have been done in 2025, but that now have to be done in 2026. So therefore, I would say that deteriorated number is part of our guidance, and I see limited downside risk with respect to a further deterioration of SPIRIT because our visibility is reasonably high into where we are with respect to CAPEX needs, but also other things that we have to invest, be it people, be it systems, be it processes. I would say the downside risk from spirit on the financials should be maintained.

On the A350 question, well, we give a guidance of around 870 for 2026, and as usual, we don't split it by family. You can think of the A350 coming from rate of five to six in the past two to three years as far as I remember to 12 ideally in a sort of quite linear way and we want to see material increase on that trajectory already as soon as in 2026 thank you we will now go to the next question

And your next question comes from Christoph Menard from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Yes, thank you very much for taking my question. I had two. The first one, going back to Spirit, can you also give us an update on the EBIT impact on Spirit in 26 and 27? Also, my understanding was you got the compensation in 2025, so kind of the bridge approach in a way on SPIRIT at the EBIT level. My understanding was it's EBIT adjusted, not necessarily EBIT reported impact, or actually it's within the EBIT adjusted also, if you could mention or give some details on this. And the other question, it's a rather candid question, but you mentioned the issues with PRAT deliveries. Is there any way to actually increase the volume of FLIP deliveries in 2026 and 2027 to kind of offset the current situation or it's, so to say, already set in stone the production schedule? Thank you.

I'll start with the second one. Yep. Give a bit of time to Thomas to tell the story of Spirit, which is not an easy one moving from 25 to 26 and 27. On the engine issue, we have obviously discussed a lot with CSM on the possibility to get more engines already in the past. They have accepted already to increase the volume of LEAP They don't want to do it more now for 2026 than what they had accepted because they have their own challenges and constraints to manage. They have also the in-service fleet support to provide, and I guess they have also to respect their commitments to other customers. So that's not something that will help, unfortunately, for 2026. At least that's not something CFM is ready to commit on now. We'll continue to have that discussion with them as we move forward in the year. And I told you that we are managing production with the hope that we could improve the picture at a later stage. But I think CFM has been quite clear that 2026 comes with little hope. That's something that could play a role in 2027. You saw that we said from 70 to 75 by end of 2027. I continue, we continue to target by end of 2027, and would CFM be capable of providing a bit more in 2027 compared to what they have committed to us that could contribute to reaching that objective? Spirit?

Spirit. So, again, back to what have we said on the EBIT adjusted impact for Spirit in 2026 and 2027? We said it would be a low triple-digit impact, negative. And I can fully confirm that for 2026. So plug in a number that is in that range for 2027. It might be slightly more negative than that, but still within, let's say, a low triple digit range. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. We will now take our final question for today. And the final question comes from the line of Robert Stallard from Vertical Research. Please go ahead.

Thanks so much. Good morning.

Good morning.

A couple of final questions for you then. First of all, on staffing levels, you've talked about this in the past, how you've been hiring in advance of the ramp. Does that change in 2026, given the 320 adjustments? And then secondly, on foreign exchange and the weakness in the US dollar, at what point does this become a structural issue for operating margins and could require mitigating action? Thank you.

Starting with the staff, actually, we have already adjusted the staff hiring, the speed of growth in 2025 for 2026. to stay slightly ahead of the curve, but probably a bit less than what we had done before, being satisfied with the way the staff was serving the ability to ramp up. Indeed, we are currently reviewing, that's an ongoing discussion at Airbus, what needs to be adjusted for 2026. Obviously, slightly lower volumes than we were expecting, or significantly lower volumes than we were expecting. But as I said earlier, With a view that 2027 2027 should be very much pretty much similar to what we had expected maybe with some adjustments and therefore the the need to manage that dent into the production ramp up on the f320 this year as we want at the later stage or not to create opportunities would we get more engines or create accept to have gliders and by the end of this year as we enter into 2027 to support the 2027 deliveries. So it's an ongoing discussion. We will adjust. The extent to which we will adjust and the timing is still something that we are working on.

And on the U.S. dollar, I mean, let's distinguish between the short term and the long term. Obviously, in the short term for 2026, we are well hedged, and therefore it's not an issue for 2026. And I would say Almost the same is true for 2027 because we do have sufficient hedging in place. I think your question is more in the long term. My answer to that would be, of course, let's look at the current spot rate, which is still more favorable than what we have in our hedge book. So there's still quite a bit of headroom that we have before the spot rate actually becomes worse than what we have in our book. And secondly, yes, we're actively looking at what are mitigation actions. One is, of course, the general efficiency. This is why we continue to work on the LEED program and make sure that we have sufficient headroom in terms of the margin that we produce. And secondly, of course, we're constantly revisiting how can we better balance the dollar revenue slash euro cost mismatch However, we don't want to run into the risk of mitigating maybe the FX exposure, but then running into other exposures, be it suppliers or other things. And so, therefore, it's a careful balancing act when it comes to incurring more dollar costs that we don't run into other dependencies that we don't want to have. But the question, how can we mitigate a potential long-term dollar depreciation, is certainly something that we're looking at operationally. That's great. Thank you very much.

Thank you. That concludes our Q&A session. I will now hand the call back to Jean-Christophe for closing remarks.

Thank you, Sharon. That brings our session to a close for today. We really appreciate you taking the time to join us. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to reach out. Just drop an email to Olivier, Victoria, or myself, and we'll get back to you as quick as we can. Thanks again for your interest in Airbus. We are looking forward to catching up with you very soon again. Q1 26 earnings release will take place on the 28th of April. Have a great day, everybody. Thank you, everyone. Bye-bye.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. The conference is now concluded and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for joining and have a pleasant day. Goodbye.