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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

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Speaker 2: Let's talk about Airbus shares just barely finishing the day

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Speaker 2: in the green. That's after they reported third quarter adjusted

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Speaker 2: EVA that beat estimates. But it's not all good news.

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Speaker 2: The CEO also sounding the warning bell that Airbus deliveries

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Speaker 2: remain very backloaded. I'm pleased to say that that CEO

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Speaker 2: joins us now. His name is Gium Fory. He is

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Speaker 2: the CEO of Airbus Gium. Great to have you with us.

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Speaker 2: Let's talk about this target. You say that you're sticking

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Speaker 2: to the target to deliver eight hundred and twenty aircraft

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Speaker 2: to customers this year. You've only delivered about five hundred

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Speaker 2: and seven through September.

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Speaker 3: So what gives you the.

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Speaker 2: Confidence that you'll be able to hit those numbers come

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Speaker 2: the end of twenty twenty five?

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Speaker 4: And the fact that we are fully prepared and that

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Speaker 4: we're already close to end of October, and the fact

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Speaker 4: that the one of the reasons for being backloaded is

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Speaker 4: the likeability of engines for our single aisle. We were

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Speaker 4: with sixty gliders media we closed the third quarter in

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Speaker 4: down to thirty two gliders, and we think we're going

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Speaker 4: to have the engines. We need to deliver those planes

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Speaker 4: before the end of the year, so it's indeed a

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Speaker 4: lot of work in the last quarter of the year.

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Speaker 3: But we think we have the ingredients.

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Speaker 4: We're prepared to come close to the eightal and twenty deliveries.

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Speaker 3: We have guided form.

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Speaker 2: And would you say that the engines are still your

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Speaker 2: biggest bottleneck at this moment? You mentioned the gliders for example.

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Speaker 2: I know you had to park some ready made planes

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Speaker 2: because of that engine issue, So is that the biggest issue?

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Speaker 2: Would you say when it comes to the state of

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Speaker 2: your supply chain.

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Speaker 4: The majority of what we're delivering are the A three

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Speaker 4: twenty familiar aircraft, and indeed for those aircraft, the main

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Speaker 4: bottleneck is the engine. Is the engine availability from both

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Speaker 4: CFM and PRAT. We were with a very difficult situation

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Speaker 4: at MEDIAIR. Things are improving. We think we're going to

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Speaker 4: reach our numbers, as I said before for twenty twenty five,

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Speaker 4: but we will have persisting tensions on availability of engine

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Speaker 4: in twenty six and maybe in twenty seven as well.

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Speaker 1: I am curious though, Gil. I mean, we've heard from

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Speaker 1: a lot of the major airline executives that have raised

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Speaker 1: some concerns here about the backlog, in addition to just

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Speaker 1: the general problems in getting those engines onto those gliders.

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Speaker 1: There's now, at least here in the United States, the

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Speaker 1: issue of a government shutdown that of course effectively brings

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Speaker 1: to a halt or at least a slowdown and any

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Speaker 1: sort of certification. Here have you had to address that

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Speaker 1: at all so far, not.

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Speaker 4: To a major extent. We are not significantly exposed to

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Speaker 4: this situation. Again, the main challenges we have are really

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Speaker 4: on the delivery of aircraft, not on the certification of them.

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Speaker 4: We have recently certified, I mean last year, the ecceler

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Speaker 4: that's behind us, and the Acceller the eight three twenty

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Speaker 4: one ECCELERA is a great airplane is now in service.

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Speaker 4: That's behind us. And the next certification moving forward will

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Speaker 4: be for the E three fifty fraighter. But that's not

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Speaker 4: today a short term bottleneck. We have to start flying

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Speaker 4: with the aircraft. That will be the case in twenty

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Speaker 4: twenty six, so certification is for later. We planned into

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Speaker 4: service in twenty twenty seven, so we hope that in

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Speaker 4: the meantime we will be able to restart or to

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Speaker 4: have appropriate and efficient certification. Work with the FAA the

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Speaker 4: primary certification authority is YASA, and we're currently working with

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Speaker 4: the YASA for preparing the certification file of the three

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Speaker 4: fifty Fraser.

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Speaker 1: With regards to your operations here in the United States,

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Speaker 1: whether it has to do with the certification, whether it

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Speaker 1: has to do with the shutdown or the broader issues,

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Speaker 1: what are the deliveries. The timeline for delivery is coming

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Speaker 1: out of the plant in Alabama.

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Speaker 3: Well, Alabama is one of our production sites.

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Speaker 4: You know that for the eight three twenty family, we

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Speaker 4: are now relying on Mobile in the US in Alabama,

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Speaker 4: in Toulouse and Hamburg in Europe, and on changing in

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Speaker 4: China for a mobile. We have recently inaugurated the second

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Speaker 4: final assembly line for the three twenty, so we are

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Speaker 4: clearly ramping up proportionally more in the US than in

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Speaker 4: the rest of the world, and we have an eight

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Speaker 4: to twenty final assembly line, so Mobile Alabama will soon

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Speaker 4: become the fourth largest production site of commercial aircraft in

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Speaker 4: the world, and it's another site in the US.

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Speaker 3: But basically we're jumping up eight three.

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Speaker 4: Twenty globally towards the Red seventy five, and Mobile Alabama

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Speaker 4: will take each.

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Speaker 2: Air And you mentioned the A to twenty. When it

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Speaker 2: comes to your production target, you actually lowered that as well,

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Speaker 2: and I would love a little bit more detail on

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Speaker 2: what led to that decision and when you know, we

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Speaker 2: might see some of these supply chain challenges that you're

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Speaker 2: do going with beyond snarled when it comes specifically to

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Speaker 2: that body.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I like to highlight the fact that we are

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Speaker 4: not reducing production. We are reducing the speed of ramp

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Speaker 4: up on the eight to twenty. We are actually doubling

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Speaker 4: production roughly within two years from twenty four to twenty six,

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Speaker 4: and we have decided to go from what we were

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Speaker 4: anticipating for next year that was rate fourteen to actually

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Speaker 4: rate twelve, So moving up from rate six a few

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Speaker 4: quarters ago, a few years ago to the rate twelve.

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Speaker 4: We are on that trajectory. Things are moving forward quite

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Speaker 4: well in twenty twenty five, but right twelve is a

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Speaker 4: challenging target. We have to integrate as well the work

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Speaker 4: packages from spirits on the AD to twenty, the wings

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Speaker 4: and other smaller work packages, so we have a lot

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Speaker 4: on our plate. We're also introducing progressively engine improvements to

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Speaker 4: improve the durability of the engine for customers, so a

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Speaker 4: lot of work on day to twenty very far and

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Speaker 4: steep ramp up, and we think that's good enough in

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Speaker 4: terms of quantity of work and challenges. Moving from twenty

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Speaker 4: five to twenty six.

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Speaker 1: I have to ask you about the defense business. Obviously

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Speaker 1: that was a bit of a boost for you in

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Speaker 1: the most recent period. Is this a long term story

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Speaker 1: or one off.

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Speaker 4: It's a mid term story for sure, maybe a long

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Speaker 4: term one as well. You know that Europe has relied

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Speaker 4: on the United States for a very long time when

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Speaker 4: it comes to security of Europe, and we are now

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Speaker 4: in different times. Europe is really ramping up in its

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Speaker 4: ability to secure itself, to defend itself, which means significant

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Speaker 4: increase in defense budgets for the main countries of Europe

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Speaker 4: and the Natal members in Europe. So from that perspective,

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Speaker 4: it's a midterm or even long term perspective. And on

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Speaker 4: the short term it comes with orders for more equipment

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Speaker 4: for development of new ones. And indeed we have a

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Speaker 4: tailwind when it comes to our numbers and our growth

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Speaker 4: coming from defense against that backdrop.

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Speaker 2: And we shall also talk about your ambitions when it

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Speaker 2: comes to space as well, and to compete against elon

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Speaker 2: musk SpaceX I know that you're merging some of your

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Speaker 2: operation with regional peers trying to create a regional venture.

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Speaker 2: That project expected to be running in twenty twenty seven GM.

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Speaker 2: Would you anticipate though you might run into any sort

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Speaker 2: of regulatory challenges? Here is twenty twenty seven looking like

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Speaker 2: a firm date.

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Speaker 4: Well, we just signed the memo honub of understanding with

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Speaker 4: Talis and Leonardo to create that European player and that

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Speaker 4: is able to or will be able to compete at

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Speaker 4: scale on the global.

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Speaker 3: Competitive landscape. So that's really good. We are not.

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Speaker 4: Only willing to compete with SpaceX and starting obviously that's

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Speaker 4: a big player and a fast moving player, but we

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Speaker 4: are serving many other needs, including defense in.

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Speaker 3: Europe and across the world. That creates a.

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Speaker 4: Company that has the put on sun to be very

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Speaker 4: competitive to serve the interest and the needs of the

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Speaker 4: European players and more global players. As I said, we

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Speaker 4: have to go through the regulatory process to the anti trust.

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Speaker 3: That's something that is now ahead of us.

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Speaker 4: Well, I think Europe has moved forward as well, understanding

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Speaker 4: that it needs to be able to compete globally, and

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Speaker 4: we hope that we will be supported for what we're doing.

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Speaker 4: We have to demonstrat compliance with the European regulations and

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Speaker 4: other regulations.

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Speaker 3: We're starting at work now, all right.

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Speaker 1: Really appreciate you taking time for us and CEO of

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Speaker 1: the air Bus theregy for on the heels of the

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Speaker 1: earnings just alt most recently, but a big focus right

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Speaker 1: now on potential delivery delays.