Airbus Sticks to Plane Delivery Goal Despite Pratt & Whitney Engine Shortage — 3rd Update

By Mauro Orru

Airbus confirmed its aircraft-delivery target for the year, a sign of confidence that it can assemble enough planes despite a Pratt & Whitney engine shortage that forced it to slow production of its best-selling A320 jets.

The European plane maker said it was on track to ship about 870 commercial aircraft to customers this year compared with the 793 it dispatched in 2025. Airbus delivered 114 planes between January and the end of March, meaning it would need to send roughly 756 units in the three remaining quarters of the year to meet its goal.

Airbus has struggled to source everything from seats to toilets in recent years, hindering aircraft production and, consequently, deliveries. The company had to trim its aircraft-delivery goal in 2022, 2024 and 2025 because of supply-chain snarls.

Still, its decision to stick to its 2026 delivery goal for now shows that Airbus feels confident it can source enough components to assemble and dispatch planes despite an engine shortage from Pratt & Whitney--the latest headache for Airbus executives.

Airbus said in February that it had initiated a process to enforce its contractual rights against the RTX-owned company because it wasn't supplying all the engines that Airbus had ordered, forcing it to slow production of its popular A320 jets.

Chief Executive Guillaume Faury said in an earnings call on Tuesday that the situation hadn't improved much since then as there were still disagreements with Pratt & Whitney.

An RTX spokesman referred to comments that Chief Executive Christopher Calio made last week during the group's first-quarter earnings call, saying that deliveries would step up throughout the year.

Persistent supply-chain hurdles have weighed on investor confidence, making it harder for Airbus to capitalize on Boeing's woes after the blowout of an Alaska Airlines door plug in 2024 that exposed the U.S. jet maker to tighter regulatory scrutiny. Airbus shares are down more than 16% since the year began.

Meanwhile, Boeing has been gaining steam in recent months thanks to a recovering passenger jet business and growth in its defense and space segment. Boeing delivered 143 commercial aircraft to customers in the first quarter and its stock is up over 5% since January.

"The operating environment remains dynamic and complex. We are closely monitoring the potential impact from the fast-changing situation in the Middle East," Faury said. "In commercial aircraft, we continue to ramp up and produce as per our plan while navigating the shortage of Pratt & Whitney engines."

Airbus said it continued to target production of 13 A220 narrow-body aircraft a month in 2028, between 70 and 75 A320s a month by the end of next year, five A330s a month in 2029 and 12 of its larger A350 model in 2028.

The company said revenue for the three months to the end of March declined 7% on year to 12.65 billion euros, equivalent to $14.83 billion.

Net profit slipped 26% to 586 million euros, while adjusted earnings before interest and taxes--Airbus's preferred measure of profitability--fell 52% to 300 million euros.

Analysts had expected revenue of nearly 12.39 billion euros, a net profit of 282 million euros and adjusted EBIT of 348 million euros, according to market consensus provided by the company based on estimates from 24 analysts.

For 2026, Airbus said it continued to expect adjusted EBIT of around 7.5 billion euros. Free cash flow before customer financing--a closely watched metric by analysts and investors--is projected at around 4.5 billion euros.

Write to Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 28, 2026 13:15 ET (17:15 GMT)