Airbus keeps its 2026 targets after nine months and now needs a record fourth quarter
Europe's largest aerospace group reported mixed third-quarter figures, with revenue down 2%, but left its delivery, profit and cash guidance unchanged. Reaching about 870 deliveries means handing over roughly 323 aircraft in the final three months.
Airbus has kept its full-year 2026 guidance after publishing its nine-month results on the evening of 28 October. According to the company's release, consolidated revenues rose 7% to €50.6 billion in the first nine months, adjusted EBIT increased to €4,495 million from €4,146 million, and the group delivered 547 commercial aircraft.
The third quarter on its own was softer. Revenues fell 2% to €17,469 million and adjusted EBIT fell 9% to €1,768 million, which Reuters reported was broadly in line with analyst expectations while revenue came in below the consensus of €17.91 billion.
The nine months in numbers
Reported EBIT for the period was €4,550 million and net income was €3,587 million, or €4.54 per share, according to the ad hoc release. Free cash flow before customer financing was minus €1,268 million. Airbus explains this mainly with a build-up of inventory to support the expected deliveries in the fourth quarter. Net cash stood at €7.0 billion at the end of September, compared with €12.2 billion at the end of 2025.
The 547 deliveries break down into 68 A220s, 428 aircraft from the A320 Family, 13 A330s and 38 A350s. Gross commercial orders reached 1,174 aircraft, or 1,105 net of cancellations, and the backlog stood at 9,310 commercial aircraft at the end of September.
Self-financed research and development spending was €2,327 million, and the group employed 171,027 people at the end of the period.
Helicopters and Defence and Space
Airbus Helicopters booked 311 net orders and ended the period with a backlog of 1,122 units. Order intake at Airbus Defence and Space rose to €11.5 billion from €6.8 billion a year earlier, according to the release.
"These nine-month results reflect the upward trajectory of our civil and military ramp-up, supported by strong demand for our products across the entire portfolio," said Guillaume Faury, Airbus Chief Executive Officer, in the release.
Guidance and production rates unchanged
Airbus still targets around 870 commercial aircraft deliveries in 2026, adjusted EBIT of around €7.5 billion and free cash flow before customer financing of around €4.5 billion. Subtracting the 547 aircraft already delivered, that leaves about 323 deliveries for the fourth quarter.
Reuters notes that this would be the highest annual total in the company's history and requires a record fourth quarter. Faury told reporters that Airbus is no longer in the situation of two years ago, when engine shortages and other issues slowed the ramp-up, and that quality issues found on some A321neo and A330 aircraft have been identified and contained. "We are close to the end of October. We have a high level of inventory," he said, according to Reuters.
The production plans also stay in place. Airbus is working towards a rate of 70 to 75 A320 Family aircraft per month by the end of 2027, rate 13 for the A220 in 2028, rate 12 for the A350 in 2028 and rate 5 for the A330 in 2029. The integration of the work packages acquired from Spirit AeroSystems weighed on adjusted EBIT with minus €235 million in the period.
The Boeing comparison
According to Reuters, Airbus has handed over 547 aircraft so far in 2026, compared with 475 for Boeing, whose chief executive said on 27 October that the US manufacturer would miss key production and delivery targets this year. French market coverage, carried by Boursorama, described the quarterly figures as mixed while the targets were maintained.
What it means for European founders and investors
Airbus is the anchor customer for a large part of Europe's aerospace supply chain, and a record fourth quarter means pressure on suppliers to deliver parts, cabins and engines on time. Founders building in manufacturing software, quality inspection, supply-chain planning or industrial AI should note where the company itself says the bottlenecks were: engines, quality and inventory.
The growth in Defence and Space orders is the second signal. Higher European defence budgets are filling the order books of established primes, and that work increasingly flows to newer suppliers too. We have covered this shift with Helsing's new interceptors, Destinus buying Perciv AI and Beyond Vision's drone production round.
For more results from Europe's largest listed companies, see our Europe section and our recent coverage of Mercedes-Benz and Dassault Systèmes.
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