Airbus, the world’s largest commercial airplane manufacturer, said on Wednesday that it was preparing for the possibility that the United States would impose new tariffs on all imports, and that the company would deal with the higher charges by passing them along to its airline customers.
In a call with reporters, Airbus’s chief executive, Guillaume Faury, said the European company was monitoring the U.S. presidential election next week and would be prepared for the possibility of a new 10 percent tariff. Former President Donald J. Trump, the Republican candidate, has made sweeping tariffs a critical plank of his economic platform if he wins.
Mr. Faury said any new tariff would be passed along to Airbus’s airline customers, in much the same way that Airbus dealt with a tariff that Mr. Trump put on European aircraft in 2020 as part of a long-running airplane subsidy dispute.
“So that’s something we will be discussing with our customers” if necessary, Mr. Faury said. “But it puts them in a difficult place of adding an additional cost on what they have ordered and what they’re procuring,” he said. “That’s basically mainly a decision of the state that has to be borne by the companies.”
He added: “So we are prepared. We know what it feels like. We don’t believe that’s helping aviation and the competitiveness of the airlines and the aviation industry, but it’s something we would be able to manage.”
Airbus on Wednesday announced a 22 percent jump in its net profit for the first nine months of the year despite major problems in its supply chain. Mr. Faury said that Airbus’s net profit rose to 983 billion euros, or $1.1 billion, through September, and that its third-quarter adjusted earnings before interest and taxes were €1.4 billion.
The company’s fortunes are holding steady as its main rival, Boeing, continues to grapple with substantial problems in its business. A strike by Boeing’s largest union has entered its second month, and Boeing recently said it had about $5 billion in new costs and announced a restructuring that included plans to cut 17,000 jobs, or 10 percent of its work force.
The strike, led by 33,000 machinists demanding a traditional pension plan, is costing Boeing tens of millions of dollars a day, and has brought much of the production work on nearly all Boeing commercial jets except for the 787 Dreamliner to a halt. The company is looking to raise as much as $25 billion in debt or equity over the next three years, including a $10 billion line of credit, to deal with the costs.
Even so, Airbus may not be able to take full advantage of the latest crisis at Boeing as it has become a victim of its own success. Airbus has outpaced Boeing in sales for five years. Its best-selling aircraft, the A320 single-aisle jet, is sold out for nearly the next decade, and the A220 also sold out for the next several years.
But the company has been struggling to deliver all of those aircraft as its vast network of suppliers grapples with supply chain disruptions, including shortages of materials like titanium and semiconductors, as well as transportation delays.
That has pushed back the delivery of critical components like engines, aircraft frame components and cabin equipment, putting Airbus behind schedule in completing orders for major airlines that are eager to expand their fleets to take advantage of a rise in global travel demand.
“We are constantly adapting to a complex and fast-changing operating environment marked by geopolitical uncertainties and specific supply chain challenges that have materialized in the course of 2024,” Mr. Faury said.
In the summer, Airbus said it would not be able to meet a pledge of building 75 A320 jets per month until 2027, a year later than forecast. The company has delivered 497 aircraft to its customers so far in 2024, out of a target of around 770 for the year (which had already been lowered from 800). Mr. Faury maintained that target in the call on Wednesday.
Despite the production challenges, the company said Wednesday that it had delivered its first long-range single-aisle new generation aircraft, which burns 30 percent less fuel than older aircraft, to Spain’s Iberia Airlines and secured an order for 60 jets from Riyadh Air, a Saudi start-up.
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