Airbus is implementing a short-term cost-containment programme intended to support its production ramp-up efforts.
Speaking during a first-half briefing, chief executive Guillaume Faury said the aim of the programme – which has been designated ‘Lead’ – is to prioritise serving the ramp-up and financial performance, and avoid being “distracted”.
He says the programme will look to ensure that human, financial and management resources are not being spent on matters which are not generating a contribution.
Faury says ‘Lead’ will support the growth trajectory “without compromising on quality and compliance” and “improve competitiveness”.
Airbus chief financial officer Thomas Toepfer says the cost-containment measures amount to a formalisation of previous plans to focus on efficiency.
“I would not call it a restructuring programme,” he says, adding that it is intended to ensure “everybody is laser-focused on ramp-up”.
Toepfer says the scheme will check the company is not overspending but keeping resources in line with deliveries and its cost base under control.
He says the company has “probably overhired” relative to its plans, having wrongly estimated attrition rates, and that hiring is decelerating in 2024.
Airbus is seeking to raise output on several aircraft programmes – particularly its single-aisle models – but supply-chain issues have forced it to push back the timeline to achieve planned output of 75 A320neo-family aircraft per month.
Faury highlights the supply of cabin equipment – especially seats – and engines as being among the issues with which the airframer is grappling.
He says that, as Airbus emerged from the pandemic-driven slowdown, it faced “a large number of root causes, a lot of small fires to deal with”.
But he states that this has since evolved into a “limited number of significant issues with larger suppliers”.
“That’s what we’re facing now,” he says.
Faury points out that items such as seats, engines and the landing-gear are typically among components scheduled to arrive relatively late in the final assembly process, which gives the company “little notice” and “less ability” to react if there are problems.
”It’s why we’ve been impacted short term, with little notice or anticipation, more recently,” he adds. The airframer has taken steps including the deployment of joint improvement plan teams to support suppliers.
While the deferral of the A320neo ramp-up is “a bit painful”, says Faury, he says the company’s current predicted total output for 2023-24 is 1,505 deliveries, which is only 15 aircraft lower than its original forecasts of 1,520.
