Airbus Celebrates Landmark Year Amid Surging Global Aircraft Demand
The aerospace giant Airbus has declared 2025 a landmark year, reporting unprecedented financial results driven by soaring global demand for commercial aircraft. The company's consolidated revenues climbed six percent year-on-year to an impressive €73.4 billion, while adjusted EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) surged to €7.1 billion, up from €5.3 billion in 2024. This remarkable performance underscores Airbus's dominant position in the competitive aerospace sector.
Record Deliveries and Workforce Expansion
Throughout the 2025 financial year, Airbus delivered a total of 793 commercial aircraft, including 93 A220s, 607 A320 Family jets, 36 A330s, and 57 A350s. This robust delivery schedule contributed significantly to the company's financial success. Concurrently, Airbus's global workforce expanded by five percent, reaching 165,294 employees, reflecting the company's growth and operational scaling efforts.
Airbus maintains key UK bases in Broughton, North Wales, where it manufactures wings, and in Filton, South Gloucestershire, which focuses on designing wings, landing gear, and fuel systems. These facilities play a crucial role in the company's global supply chain and innovation pipeline.
Strong Financial Position and Dividend Proposal
The company's financial health is further evidenced by a free cash flow before customer financing of €4.5 billion and a consolidated net cash position of €12.2 billion, up from €11.8 billion at the end of 2024. In light of these strong results, Airbus's board has proposed a full-year dividend of €3.20 per share, signaling confidence in future performance and rewarding shareholders.
Performance Across Business Units
Airbus Helicopters reported a 13 percent increase in revenues to €9 billion, with deliveries rising to 392 units from 361 in 2024. Similarly, Airbus Defence and Space saw revenues grow by 11 percent year-on-year to €13.4 billion, driven by higher volumes across all business units. The company's order intake by value jumped to €123.3 billion from €103.5 billion the previous year, although the consolidated order book value slightly decreased to €619 billion from €629 billion in 2024.
Gross commercial aircraft orders totaled 1,000 aircraft, up from 878 a year earlier, with net orders of 889 after cancellations. The order backlog reached a year-end record of 8,754 commercial aircraft, highlighting sustained demand.
Production Ramp-Up and Challenges
Airbus is actively ramping up production across its programs. The A220 program is targeting a rate of 13 aircraft per month by 2028, with ongoing integration of Spirit AeroSystems work packages. However, the A320 Family faces challenges due to Pratt & Whitney's failure to commit to ordered engine quantities, negatively impacting this year's guidance and ramp-up trajectory. As a result, Airbus now expects to reach a rate of 70 to 75 aircraft per month by the end of 2027, stabilizing at 75 thereafter.
The company continues to target rate five for the A330 program in 2029 and rate 12 for the A350 program in 2028, demonstrating a strategic focus on long-term growth.
Leadership Perspective
Guillaume Faury, Airbus Chief Executive, commented, "2025 was a landmark year, characterised by very strong demand for our products and services across all businesses, a record financial performance, and strategic milestones. We successfully navigated a complex and dynamic operating environment to deliver on our updated guidance."
He added, "Global demand for commercial aircraft underpins our ongoing production ramp-up, which we are managing while facing significant Pratt & Whitney engine shortages. The broad and competitive portfolios of Defence and Space as well as Helicopters allow us to capture the momentum in defence. We are also making progress to establish a new global industrial space player, together with our partners."
These results not only highlight Airbus's resilience and adaptability but also set a positive tone for future growth in the aerospace industry.
