Airbus, the world’s largest commercial airplane maker, said on Thursday that it was preparing for the possibility of new U.S. tariffs and would be able to “adapt accordingly,” including passing on higher costs to its American airline customers.
In a wide-ranging media conference at Airbus’s headquarters in Toulouse, France, the company’s chief executive, Guillaume Faury, also stepped up calls for European companies and governments to increase collaboration on defense at a time when the United States appears to be retreating from its security role in Europe.
President Trump’s rapid pivots on longstanding U.S. trade and security policy have increased uncertainty for businesses around the world, and have sent policymakers scrambling to figure out how to adjust. Last week, he set in motion a plan for so-called reciprocal tariffs on American trading partners, as he broadens the scope of his unfolding trade war.
Airbus is trying to anticipate what will happen, Mr. Faury said at the briefing. “We are like others facing uncertainty when it comes to tariffs,” he said.
On Thursday, Airbus, the world’s biggest aerospace and defense producer and the main rival to Boeing, confirmed its continued dominance in the civil aviation market: It reported a 12 percent surge in net profit in 2024, to 4.2 billion euros ($4.4 billion), and the delivery of 766 commercial jets to airlines around the world, compared with 348 planes for Boeing.
Airbus said it expected to further ramp up jet production this year to meet demand from airlines. But the impact of tariffs was a source of uncertainty for the company, which has production and supply operations in several regions where Mr. Trump has imposed or threatened tariffs, including Europe, China, Mexico and Canada.
Airbus also has sprawling operations in the United States, and Mr. Faury appeared hopeful that the White House would spare the company as it lobs tariff threats on entire industries and countries selling in the U.S. market.
The company has an airplane manufacturing hub in Alabama, a helicopter facility in Mississippi and a satellite business in Florida, which collectively employ more than 5,000 workers and indirectly support 275,000 jobs among its 2,000 U.S. suppliers.
“We have tried in the past years to be seen as a major player in the U.S., with U.S. suppliers, a big work force, and we hope that will pay off,” Mr. Faury said.
But whether that would insulate the company from political headwinds seemed to be an open question. Mr. Trump appeared to single out Airbus on Wednesday when he said he was considering buying a used Boeing aircraft from an overseas seller to use as Air Force One, the presidential plane. “I would not consider an Airbus,” he said.
Mr. Faury downplayed the remarks, saying he had “sympathy with the idea that for the U.S. president, buying from a U.S. manufacturer makes sense.”
“That said,” he continued, “we serve U.S. airlines from the United States, we have invested in the United States, we employ, we buy, we sell, and we have managed to make the point that we are also a U.S. company, but we are primarily a European player.”
Any tariffs would be “lose-lose” for the aviation industry, Mr. Faury added. “Obviously there would be an increase of cost and most probably in price for the airlines, and therefore to the end customers.”
Although the United States is an important market, Airbus has other regions where it can produce and sell aircraft. “We have very strong demand from outside the U.S.,” including India and the Middle East, Mr. Faury said. The company’s planes are so popular that it has a record order backlog of 8,658 aircraft.
At the same time, Airbus is preparing for changes in the defense industry, where it is one of Europe’s biggest makers of military equipment, including the Eurofighter Typhoon combat jet. With the United States signaling a rapid pullback from its role as a guarantor, “the security environment that we are in is worrisome for the future and it’s worrisome for Europe,” Mr. Faury said.
He said Europe needed to come together to ensure its sovereignty and shore up the defense industry, which he described as “too small and too fragmented” compared with the United States.
To get there requires greater consolidation, he said, including establishing closer ties between two of Europe’s biggest military programs, the Global Combat Air Program, led by Britain, Italy and Japan, and the Future Combat Air System, led by France, Germany and Spain. Both projects envisage next-generation fighter jets that are critical for European defense.
“There is a clear case for Europe to step up,” Mr. Faury said.
