Airbus Could Miss Rate 75 Target In Late 2027

Airbus could fail to meet its target of producing 75 A320neo family aircraft by the end of 2027, CEO Guillaume Faury has said on June 9 in Berlin. The one to blame is engine maker Pratt & Whitney, which still hasn’t provided guarantees on the number of Geared Turbofans it can deliver to Airbus.

Faury commented on the engine issue in a press conference ahead of the ILA Berlin airshow, which opened the gates on Wednesday. The airshow is dominated by defence and security, with only a limited presence from commercial aerospace this time. It has an A350 on static and flying display.

Speaking of the situation with Pratt & Whitney deliveries, Faury said that the engine maker still hasn’t given certainty about the 2027 production schedule. “That frustrates me, because we had a good plan to get to 75 aircraft per month by the end of next year. It seems that we might fail to meet this target if our friends at Pratt don’t deliver what we need”, Faury is quoted on German aviation website Aero.de.

Faury first mentioned the disagreement in February during the FY25 results presentation. He said that Airbus could call on its contractual rights to force P&W to deliver the agreed number of engines. If not, Airbus could seek a legal route out of this conflict. At the Q1 results call in April, Faury took a more reserved tone and said: “We are trying to resolve the situation and come to an agreement. So we work both ways: the dispute on the one hand and the negotiations on the other hand to constructively resolve the disagreement we have.”

Pratt & Whitney explained in its call in January that it tries to balance engine deliveries between Airbus, existing customers, and spare engines. Keeping the GTF fleet in the air has priority for Pratt, as it is forced to pay costly compensation to airline and leasing customers. This situation has existed since the problem with contaminated powder metal manifested itself in 2023, forcing P&W into a replacement and repair program of hundreds of GTF engines. As a result of this situation, extremely young aircraft with GTF engines are being parted out because their engines are worth more than the entire airframe.

The dispute between Airbus and Pratt is about 2027, more than 2026. Faury said in April that he expects to receive all the contracted engines for this year. He reiterated in Berlin that Airbus expects to deliver around 870 airliners this year, in line with the guidance provided in January.

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Richard Schuurman

Richard Schuurman is a freelance aviation reporter since 2016 and covers commercial aviation and the aerospace industry. He has contributed before to AirInsight between 2018-2024.

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