Airbus, the European aerospace giant whose plant at Filton employs more than 4,000 people, is ready to help airlines with aircraft financing if funding dries up in the wake of the European debt crisis.
Lenders and airlines were warned earlier this week the industry could become a casualty of Europe's debt crisis and the worries surrounding French banks, which helped fund 30% of aircraft transactions in 2010.
However, despite concerns over financing and stock market turmoil, Airbus is raising output over the next three years and its long-term global market forecast for aircraft demand.
It forecasts demand for 27,800 new passenger and freighter aircraft by 2030 at a combined total list price of $3.5trillion.
The upbeat outlook is good news for Airbus’s Filton plant, which designs wing parts, fuel systems and landing gear and is behind innovative engineering projects which will make flying more sustainable.
Airlines order aircraft years in advance but generally pay on delivery. However, Airbus chief executive, Tom Enders, said in an interview with leading French newspaper Le Figaro, that Airbus is prepared to offer support to clients encountering the dwindling supply of funding from European banks.
“In the short term, we are worried to see that access to bank credit could once again become scarce, in particular long-term financing in dollars from some European banks,” he said.
Airbus helped with funding in 2008-2009, “and if needed we are ready to do it again”, he said, adding that at present other sources of finance from US and Chinese banks and capital markets remain available.
Meanwhile Hans Peter Ring, finance director of Airbus parent company EADS, told Reuters he was confident the industry would be financed in coming years. “Nearly all French banks have stated to us that they have no intention of leaving this sector. We have seen many new banks entering or re-entering the aviation market,” he said.
In its latest global market forecast, Airbus says that continuing “democratisation” of air transport – driven by emerging economies, a global increase in wealth, greater urbanisation, the need for more eco-efficient aircraft and a nearly doubling of major airport hubs for mega-cities – will lead to the demand for more than 26,900 new passenger airliners and 900-plus new factory-built cargo aircraft during the next 20 years.
