Of course, it is not the case that Airbus shares have already fully recovered from the corona shock in aviation. In February 2020 it cost almost 140 euros. On Thursday morning it was traded at around 109 euros. But still: that was an increase of seven percent compared to the previous day. Airbus had apparently encouraged the investors with a strategically extremely important decision.
Airbus boss Guillaume Faury had announced that the aircraft manufacturer would stop production of the short- and medium-haul series A320neo want to expand further. It has already been decided to increase the monthly production rate from currently around 50 machines to 65 by summer 2023. Now, two years later, it should even be 75. And considering the smaller model A220 If this is factored in, then in three years there will be as many as 89 narrow-body aircraft (with only one aisle in the cabin) that Airbus will be delivering to customers every month. Calculated over the year, more than 1000 machines, and that without the long-haul jets, which are currently weakening.
You need to know two things: The A320neoseries is highly profitable. It can therefore be assumed that Airbus will earn a lot of money with the expected strong demand with the growth. In the first quarter, the company had already achieved an operating margin of around 14 percent in the civil business, a profit of 1.2 billion euros. Strategically, however, the comparison with Boeing is even more important: The US manufacturer is currently producing 31 machines from its competitors 737 maximumseries per month and has just announced that the volume will remain unchanged for the time being. Although demand is also strong at Boeing, the group has much greater difficulties than Airbus with its suppliers. Apparently, these cannot expand any faster. Airbus itself also admits to having problems in the supply chain, but these can be dealt with.
Airbus currently has a market share of around 60 percent
So if nothing changes in the production plans, Airbus would build three times as many short- and medium-haul aircraft as Boeing in three years and thus further increase its already high market share of currently around 60 percent. This is good for the cost side – better prices can be achieved with suppliers and with customers as well. Normally, a competitor as cornered as Boeing would react immediately and either expand itself or launch a new competitor aircraft. However, the US group does not seem to be economically able to do either of these things at the moment.
Airbus plans to hire 6,000 new employees this year alone. A second final assembly line for the A320neo-Family arise.