Cthose who gave air transport for dead after the Covid-19 pandemic and the pushes towards de-globalization will have to wait. The Indian subcontinent, like other parts of the world, needs planes.
Air India’s order of 500 aircraft, shared equally between Airbus and Boeing – the largest in the history of civil aviation – illustrates the deafness to the climatic alarms ringing everywhere. Even if the European aircraft manufacturer and its American competitor are making great efforts to make their aircraft “greener”.
Jobs first. French President Emmanuel Macron was to congratulate himself on Tuesday, February 14, on a decision that fills the order books of the Toulouse factory, where the A320neo are assembled. Airbus has already planned to hire 7,000 more people this year, after an equivalent number in 2022, bringing its global workforce to 140,000 employees.
Industrial issues
Earning orders is good; honoring them is better. Airbus now has 7,500, and it is less environmental issues than industrial problems that are hampering its growth. In February 2022, Guillaume Faury acknowledged that his group, dependent on a global supply chain, was evolving in a “complex environment”.
Unsurprisingly, it suffered from failures of some of its 10,000 suppliers, shortages of components such as semiconductors and restrictions on raw materials, linked to the labor crisis in the United States, the confinements in China and the war in Ukraine. Engine manufacturers, such as Safran, also had their share of difficulties.
Airbus ultimately delivered only 661 aircraft in 2022, far from its target of 720. Inventories lasting several weeks and accelerated training for technicians have enabled a ramp-up. This costly policy has its limits, and Mr. Faury warned in January that “production difficulties will continue”. Airlines know it: the Airbus-Boeing duopoly is crushing the market, and they have no choice but to stand in line, like planes waiting to take off.