Airbus helping suppliers with more support, doesn’t see slowdown

Airbus SE said it’s going deeper than ever before into its supply chain to stabilize component providers, putting more engineers on the ground at suppliers as it seeks to shore up its production network. 

“We have invested a significant amount of resources — and I’m talking mainly about human resources — deep into the supply chain, far deeper and in far greater detail than we’ve ever done before,” said Christian Scherer, the head of Airbus’s commercial aircraft operations. 

Airbus was forced to revise its earnings and production goals last month, partly because the company is having trouble getting its supply chain back on track after years of disruption caused by Covid. The company is also in the process of buying back some production facilities owned by Spirit AeroSystems Inc., which is Boeing Co.’s most important builder of aero structures and is being reintegrated into Airbus’s arch-rival.

In the wake of the revision announced last month, European planemaker initiated a program that seeks to address what Scherer called “headwinds.” 

“It’s not a cost-cutting exercise, it’s one that addresses the unforeseen pain points in the supply chain, some of which have to do with the knots that we’ve identified,” Scherer said, speaking ahead of this year’s Farnborough Air Show. “It’s an exercise of putting ourselves into higher efficiency.”

Airbus said that while some airlines have pointed to slowing yields and excess capacity, such a dip has not yet fed through to demand, Scherer said.