Airbus has grand plans to increase aircraft production. During a financial briefing on the sidelines of the 2026 Farnborough International Airshow the company outlined its goals to top 100 aircraft per month across its four product lines.
But the manufacturer also acknowledged challenges on multiple fronts working against those goals. It has control over some of the blockers, but depends on many suppliers in ways that will continue to see external uncertainties impact its numbers.
Speeding Up
The production rates highlighted in the briefing are not new nor surprising. The A320 family remains the workhorse of the company, with a rate of 70-75 expected in 2027 per the official guidance.
Hitting that target will be helped by recent efforts to ensure that all the A320 lines are now A321-capable. That was not always the case, but the adjustments help ensure Airbus can build the aircraft its customers want. And larger models continue to show strong demand across the industry.
But 75 is, in fact, not really the target for 2027. Commercial Aircraft CEO Lars Wagner shared that the range of 70-75 is in use because of “delay[s in the] ramp up of the engine supply, mainly from Pratt and Whitney.” P&W is not the only supplier frustrating the company’s goals, though it was the only one called out by name in the two hour session.
Wagner now anticipates that rate 75 will not be reached until “shortly after the beginning of 2028.”
Airbus has grand plans for its fleet production numbers, but also many challenges to realize those goals.
Spreading Out
On the widebody side of the operations the company also wants to grow faster. Wagner describes “an even higher demand” and a desire to “tap this market share, meaning we want to increase our market share.”
Current plans see the A330 hit rate 5 in 2029 and the A350 hit rate 12 in 2028. But increased demand has Airbus looking to juice those numbers. “As we see the wide body demand going up,” Faury shared, “we’re actually investigating on both platforms how to increase the rate to supply the demand that’s out there, and that could go higher on both 330 and the 350.”
Just getting to 12 comes with challenges for the A350 line. Wagner suggested suppliers will need to scale, particularly in “cabin environments or lavatories and galleys, linings; that’s what we are currently short of.” Again, no surprise here and certification challenges are part of the mess. But, also, no real answers being bandied about for how these challenges will be solved.
Those challenges continue as the company looks to move past rate 12, but pale in comparison to the a much larger, structural issue with that plan. Later in the session, in response to a query from one of the analysts, Airbus acknowledged that the current A350 line would tap out at rate 12. Growing beyond that means building a second Final Assembly Line.
Where that facility would sit, how it would integrate with suppliers, and – most importantly – timing on a decision to do so all remain unclear at this time. But if the A350 demand continues to rise as expected that new FAL will be necessary to meet demand.
Stretching Out
While the A320 lines now all support the A321s, enabling more builds of the stretch model on the flagship offering, other anticipated stretch options remain under investigation. Both the A220-500* and A350-2000* were tipped – again – for this treatment. But, also, Airbus still won’t confirm either is definitely happening.
They almost certainly are, of course. The new A220-300 exit window layout going into production is a critical step towards bringing the A220-500 to life. Plus the market continues to show love for stretch models of aircraft and the trip cost efficiency they deliver. Indeed, Wagner later shared that Airbus “can work this A220 stretch with an improved but similar engine from Pratt and Whitney,” trading a bit of range for the increased capacity. He also shared that “customers are fine with that” tradeoff. Clearly it is happening. But the time to formally commit still seems to not be right.
Transitioning to the Next Generation
One major challenge, particularly with the next generation single-aisle program the company recently started teasing, is the transition. How can Airbus maintain its production volume, quality, and efficiency while also bringing a new model online?
And with the single-aisle program it must bring NGSA into the production mix, potentially with new engines, a new fuselage, and other significant changes, in a way that can eventually drop in to the current FAL footprints. Perhaps there is room (somewhere??) to build a new single-aisle FAL to get NGSA off the ground before transitioning the A320neo FALs?
It will likely be a much more complicated transition than from the A320 to the A320neo, both because of the space required and the changes to what the aircraft are and how they are built.
NGSA promises much more significant shifts in the aircraft technology and the assembly process. As Wagner observed, “When I think about the next-gen single aisle, it is not only technology bricks. It is also the industrial setup that we need to be quickly at rate, to be as efficient as possible, as automated as possible, supported by robotics and and AI.”
A completely different assembly process, using different engines and materials, will not slot in to an existing FAL without significant updates. It is unlikely Airbus would be able to build both A320neo and NGSA planes concurrently on the same line like it did with the A320 and A320neo.
Making this transition will not be easy. But it is also a decade-ish away.
All of which is to say that Airbus clearly has its work cut out to hit the growth targets it desires. So do its suppliers.
But it seems to have a plan. And demand from customers to drive the process forward. It certainly will be interesting to watch.
*Neither name/designation is official, but that’s generally what they’re being called in the industry
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