Some companies stumble through global turbulence. On the other hand, Airbus seems to have learned how to bank into it gracefully like a pilot who’s seen a few storms and knows when to ease the throttle rather than fight the wind.
For the nine months to 30 September 2025, Europe’s largest planemaker delivered 507 commercial aircraft, posted €47.4 billion in revenue, and kept its 2025 guidance intact, tariffs, trade spats, and supply snarls notwithstanding.
In an age where most corporates call a minor delay a “strategic pause,” Airbus’s ability to keep production humming deserves a nod.
A firm hand on the yoke
Chief Executive Guillaume Faury struck his usual tone of quiet competence when unveiling the results, noting:
“Our nine-month results reflect the level of commercial aircraft deliveries and a solid performance in the Defence and Space and Helicopters businesses. Deliveries remain backloaded amid a complex and dynamic operating environment. Meanwhile, we continue to expand our industrial capacity to support the commercial aircraft ramp-up.”
That last line, “backloaded amid a complex environment,” is corporate-speak for we’ll do the heavy lifting later, once the world calms down. And to Airbus’s credit, the world hasn’t calmed down, yet they’re still lifting.
Revenues rose 7% year-on-year, while profits (the tidy “EBIT Adjusted” figure investors prefer) climbed to €4.1 billion, up from €2.8 billion in 2024.
That’s a solid climb even for a company accustomed to lofty altitude.
Orders holding their altitude
Order momentum dipped slightly, with 610 gross commercial aircraft orders, down from 667 a year ago, but the backlog remains colossal: 8,665 aircraft are waiting to be built and handed over to impatient airlines.
That’s roughly five years of work in the hangar queue. The modern aviation economy, it seems, is built on the art of waiting.
Helicopter orders stayed strong at 306, while the Defence and Space arm logged €6.8 billion in new orders, fewer than last year but notably more profitable. The division, once the group’s problem child, is now the quiet achiever.
Revenues rise across the board.
Breaking down the headline numbers:
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Commercial aircraft revenues reached €33.9 billion, up 3%
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Helicopters jumped 16% to €5.7 billion
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Defence and Space surged 17% to €8.9 billion
Deliveries rose slightly, but the story lies in what Airbus calls services: training, maintenance, and retrofitting. These steady earners keep cash flowing even when supply chains wobble.
The corporate lesson here? If you can’t sell more planes, sell the upkeep.
Production ramp-ups and reality checks
Airbus continues to juggle ambition with realism, a tricky act when investors track every nut and bolt.
The A320 Family, the company’s bread-and-butter line, is heading towards the ambitious 75 aircraft per month target by 2027. The smaller A220, meanwhile, will scale more cautiously to a rate of 12 in 2026, reflecting supply constraints and market pacing.
The A330 is settling into a steady rhythm of four per month, aiming for five by 2029, while the A350, Airbus’s long-haul pride and joy, targets twelve per month by 2028.
In industry terms, those numbers translate to one thing: confidence tempered by a touch of realism, the sort of balance every air traffic controller appreciates.
Helicopters: the quiet star
While most attention is focused on commercial jets, Airbus Helicopters continues to outperform. EBIT Adjusted climbed to €495 million, reflecting strong services and higher deliveries.
It’s the sort of division that rarely makes headlines but pays the bills. In the civilian market, helicopter services are booming — medical flights, offshore rigs, even tourism. Defence orders, too, are picking up across Europe as governments rediscover the importance of logistics that actually fly.
Defence and Space: back in orbit
If one segment has a true turnaround story, it’s Airbus Defence and Space. Last year, it posted a hefty loss; this year, it’s comfortably in the black with €420 million EBIT Adjusted.
A major driver has been renewed European collaboration, with Leonardo and Thales joining Airbus in plans to build a consolidated European space powerhouse. This effort ensures that the next wave of satellite and defence technology doesn’t all come from across the Atlantic.
For once, “strategic autonomy” might mean more than a press release.
The ever-complicated A400M
Ah, the A400M, Europe’s giant, lumbering airlifter that has tested patience since its inception. Airbus says discussions with the OCCAR agency and member nations are now “positive and forward-looking,” which is boardroom language for nobody’s yelling anymore.
France and Spain have agreed to advance seven deliveries, providing a welcome bit of momentum. Of course, risks remain, as they always do with an aircraft whose wingspan rivals a tennis court. But Airbus insists costs are stable, and production visibility is improving.
For an aircraft that once embodied every European negotiation cliché, that’s progress.
The money matters
Strip away the technicalities and find a company still making money, though not without effort.
Reported EBIT reached €3.37 billion, up from €2.69 billion, while net income rose to €2.64 billion, or €3.34 per share.
Airbus took €781 million in adjustments, including €577 million for dollar mismatches, a reminder that when you trade in euros but sell in dollars, even the best hedge feels like a leaky umbrella.
Spirit AeroSystems’ integration, part of Airbus’s longer-term industrial plan, cost another €88 million, though the company says the move will simplify future supply lines.
Cash flow, meanwhile, remains tight at €914 million before customer financing, as inventories swell to meet fourth-quarter deliveries. Yet the gross cash position still sits at a sturdy €21.3 billion, enough to cushion any turbulence ahead.
Tariffs in the tailwind
Airbus has folded tariffs into its 2025 guidance for the first time. That alone says plenty about the times. The company expects around 820 deliveries, €7 billion EBIT Adjusted, and €4.5 billion free cash flow before financing figures that would make most manufacturers envious.
It’s also a quiet statement of defiance: Europe’s biggest exporter keeping its head up in a global trade headwind.
Faury and his team have learned that unpredictability is the new normal. You don’t plan around turbulence anymore; you plan through it.
Behind the numbers: a cultural shift
One reason Airbus keeps its footing lies in its culture. The company has grown almost zen-like in its patience since the bruising production delays of the early 2020s. Executives talk less about “disruption” and more about “stability.” Engineers, once over-tasked, are now encouraged to say no to impossible deadlines, an unthinkable notion in the old days.
Even in Toulouse’s headquarters corridors, there’s a noticeable quiet confidence, a sense of a company that has rediscovered its rhythm after years of global uncertainty.
If aviation mirrors the wider economy, then Airbus is Europe’s way of saying, “We’ve weathered worse.”
A measured optimism
The true art of Airbus’s 2025 story is restraint, no grandiose promises, no chest-thumping about the future of flight, just calm progress.
The world’s airlines are ordering again, but cautiously. Supply lines are healing, but slowly. And the grand dreams of hydrogen-powered fleets or zero-emission jets remain a decade away. For its part, Airbus seems perfectly content to focus on what it does best: building aircraft that actually leave the ground.
If that sounds dull, it’s because reliability often is, and investors love dull when it comes to dividends.
A European constant
When the next round of turbulence hits geopolitical, financial, or environmental, it’s a fair bet that Airbus will still be there, quietly adjusting its trim and staying the course.
That’s not glamorous, but it is very European: cautious, collective, and ultimately reliable.
Guillaume Faury once quipped that “aircraft manufacturing is a long game.” On the evidence of 2025, he wasn’t joking. Airbus may not be breaking sound barriers, but it’s proving that steady altitude beats sudden climbs every time.
By Jill Walsh – (c) 2025
READ TIME: 7 minutes
About the Writer
Jill Walsh has always had a pen within reach and a suitcase not far behind. She cut her teeth on media releases and then honed her craft shepherding press trips across half the globe, learning which stories travel well and which need a firmer edit.
In time, she wasn’t merely promoting places; she was representing them, translating civic ambition and local pride into words people wanted to read. Now semi-retired, Jill has swapped departure boards for deadlines, joining long-time colleague and friend Stephen at Global Travel Media on a casual basis.
Her beat is the business end of wanderlust: balance sheets, route maps, tender wins, the quiet numbers that decide where travellers go. She writes with tidy prose, dry humour and an old-school respect for facts, giving readers clarity without the clutter. In short, Jill brings seasoned judgement to travel’s moving parts—and a steady voice when the market gets noisy.
