Airbus takes off its profits, “a form of indecency” for the CGT
Airbus is publishing its results for the last nine months on October 28, 2021. The aircraft manufacturer is showing good performance: a net profit of 404 million euros and 424 planes delivered since January 1, 2021. Results to be moderate, according to the group’s CGT.
At a conference in Amsterdam (Netherlands) on October 28, Airbus published its financial results for the third quarter of 2021. up.
The European aircraft manufacturer announces a net profit of 404 million euros for the third quarter. A year earlier, the group recorded a loss of 767 million euros. Since the start of 2021, Airbus will have accumulated 2.6 billion euros in net profits and increased sales by 17%.
Objectives: 600 aircraft delivered in 2021
These results “reflect a good performance of the whole company, as well as the attention paid to cost reduction and competitiveness” Guillame Faury, executive chairman of Airbus, said in a statement. The industrialist, which has already raised its forecasts upwards last July, fully intends to continue on this dynamic. The forecast of 600 aircraft delivered by the end of this year, compared to 566 in 2020, is still relevant.
During this same conference in the Netherlands, Guillaume Faury confided in his concern about the “potential risks” linked to the ability of suppliers to follow the rise in production. With deliveries in September, and possibly October, “a little disappointing“.
“We all see the tensions in the supply chain (…), the difficulties of coming out of a kind of 15-month hibernation and moving forward in a world where many products base and many sectors are resuming their activity, ”he said.
Strong demand for A320-type single-aisle aircraft should return to a rate of 45 aircraft per month and to 65 in the summer of 2023. The resumption of production at a sustained rate therefore implies guaranteeing the ability of suppliers to keep up with the rate.
According to Guillaume Faury, there would be no “systemic problem“to the aeronautics sector. If other industrial sectors have to face shortages of electronic components or of labor, Airbus does not seem to be affected by this situation and”monitor the situation“.
“A form of indecency”
As for Airbus employees, Michel Molesin qualifies the company’s profits. “Unlike air transport, there was no crisis in aeronautics. The results are good, but at what cost to the community? Billions of public aid, frozen wages, lost know-how, layoffs among subcontractors. It’s almost a form of indecency “.
“The establishment of public aid mechanisms would have benefited the aircraft manufacturer. The results have never been at this level, yet employees do not see the return”, explains Michel Molesin, CGT coordinator of the Airbus Group.
According to Maxime Léonard, CGT Airbus delegate, “after having cut nearly 2,000 jobs in France and one after the social plan, Airbus is launching a recruitment campaign when we could have done with partial unemployment”. Ultimately, “they have the same problems as us”, observes the union representative. “Just like the employees who make the same observation internally: to do more, with less means”.
“We can pick up the pace, but if we don’t hire it will be difficult. Of the order book.”
75 devices per month by 2025
The objective for Airbus is to envisage the production of 75 A320 aircraft by 2025. “We believe the demand justifies the rate of 75, but we need to look at the supply chain situation.”
The boss of Airbus also announced that the assembly lines of Toulouse and Tianjin (China) will soon be able to produce the A321, which now represents more than half of the single-aisle aircraft to be built.