Airbus’ profits soared 66% in the fourth quarter of 2024 to €2.4bn, or €3.07 per share, the company reported on February 20, 2025.
The company also guided around 820 commercial aircraft deliveries for 2025. Last year, it delivered 766 aircraft, four short of its 770 target. It had originally targeted 800 deliveries.
“We are reasonably confident that we will be able to deliver around 820 planes this year,” management said in its earnings call. “We start 2025, with a bit of a specific situation that we know first quarter will be lower than last year, particularly from CFM [supply].”
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said the company was still contending with the powdered metal issues on the Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan (GTF) engine, though the company was able to respond “more or less as planned”. Faury added: “It’s very different for CFM. [The engine manufacturer] encountered several production issues in the back end of 2024, with one linked to damage to one of their supplier’s plants in Florida in the wake of the hurricane that took place.”
He said this impacted the supply of parts from the company. “CFM supported us in the last month to help deliver aircraft to our customers, but we knew there would be some missing hardware this year and the beginning of this year, which is impacting our customers. So, we are in that situation, and there is a normalisation planned for around mid-year.”
The company is continuing to ramp up its A320 family programme towards a rate of 75 aircraft per month in 2027. In addition, the company said it is stabilising its A330 production to around four per month.
“Specific supply chain challenges, notably with Spirit AeroSystems, are currently putting pressure on the ramp up of the A350 and the A220,” said Airbus in its results. Spirit is to be acquired by Boeing later this year. Airbus entered into an agreement in June 2024 to potentially acquire programmes related to Airbus. The company will be compensated with $559 million from Spirit as part of the agreement. Negotiations are still ongoing before a definitive agreement is made. Airbus CFO Thomas Toepfer said “more time is required to finalise the transaction”, but the company assumes it will close in the middle of this year.
Toepfer said on the call: “As we gain more in-depth knowledge of the operational situation, the financial outlook is more challenging than what we had originally anticipated. To support the A350 and A220 ramp up, we will need to invest in order to increase production capabilities and drive operational efficiency.”
Assuming a closing date in mid-2025, the transaction is expected to have a “neutral impact” on its adjusted EBIT and triple digit positive impact on EBIT reported as a result of the compensation from Spirit. “The net cash impact is expected to be roughly neutral, as well as the compensation will offset the negative free cash flow impact,” said Toepfer. The company expects a low triple digit negative impact on adjusted EBIT in 2026 and 2027, as well as up to a mid-triple digit negative impact on free cash flow before customer finance per year.
Faury said during the earnings call that Spirit’s work packages for Airbus are loss making because the efficiency of the parts manufacturer “has to be improved”, adding that there are “processes in place which are not optimal”.
“Spirit is clearly a bottleneck because they’re not able to ramp up the A350 and A220 [programmes],” Faury continued. “Our focus in the next three years is to spend on capex to bring Spirit in the position that they can support the trajectory that we have in our plans for the A220 and A350… Once we are done with the investments and optimisations we want to make at Spirit, we are expecting that we will turn around these work packages to the same level of cost that we are currently paying externally.”
Faury said the impact of the acquisition beyond 2028 “should not be a negative one” once the necessary improvements are made.
In addition to this, management team noted delays in interior supplies such as seats and monuments – built-in structures or fixtures.
Consolidated revenues for the quarter were up 8% in the quarter to €24.7bn, driven by the higher deliveries of its commercial airplanes and helicopters, as well as higher contribution from its defence and space segment. EBIT for the quarter was up 38% to €2.6bn.
For the company’s commercial aircraft segment, revenues were up 9% to €17.8bn and EBIT was up 73% to €2.3bn. Airbus helicopters revenues were up 15% to €3.1bn and EBIT was up 30% to €398 million. Defence and space segment was up only 3% to €4.5bn, while EBIT swung to a negative €39 million, compared to a positive €223 million a year prior.
For the full year revenues were up 6% to €69.2bn in 2024. EBIT for the year was up 15% to €5.3bn. Net income for the year was up 12% to €4.2bn, or an earnings per share of €5.36. Faury said he was “pleased” with that the company had achieved its guidance.
The company estimates around €7bn adjusted EBIT for 2025 and a free cash flow before customer financing of around €4.5bn.
The company will propose a dividend payment for 2024 of €2.00 per share, up from €1.80 per share in 2023, and a special dividend of €1.00 per share, to the 2025 annual general meeting taking place on April 15, 2025. The proposed payment date is April 24, 2025.
Airbus’ commercial planes revenues were up 6% to €50.6bn and EBIT was up 42% to €5.1bn. Toepfer said the commercial segment’s growth was partially offset by “investments to prepare for the future, notably the excess workforce, as well as a slightly less favourable hedge rate”.
Helicopter revenues were up 8% to €7.9bn and EBIT was up 14% to €818 million. Faury noted the strong performance and growth for this segment.
“We achieved strong order intake across all businesses in 2024, with a book-to-bill well above 1, confirming the solid demand for our products and services,” said Faury in a statement.
The company’s consolidated free cash flow was up 9% to €4.5bn in the full year.
As of the end of 2024, the company had €129.2bn in total assets, as well as €129.2bn in total equity and liabilities. The company held €15bn in cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year.