Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Airbus Q1 2022 results release conference call. I am Clotilde, the operator for this conference. Please note that for the duration of the presentation, all participants will be on a listen-only mode, and afterwards, there will be a question-and-answer session. The conference is being recorded. After the presentation, you will have the opportunity to ask a question. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to your host, Guillaume Faury, Dominik Asam, and Hélène Le Gorgeu. Please go ahead.
Thank you and good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us today for our Q1 2022 results call. I'm indeed with Dominik and Hélène here in Amsterdam to run you through our Q1 results. First, as I just said in the media call, I want to repeat that our thoughts at Airbus are with all people affected by the humanitarian crisis triggered by the attack on Ukraine, with massive casualties and millions fleeing from their homes.
At Airbus, our top priority has been, as always, and remains, to save our people and operations. Besides, in line with international sanctions, we suspended deliveries and support services to Russian customers and operators, as well as the supply of spare parts to the country.
For all our activities across all divisions, we are applying and will continue to apply the sanctions which are in place. The ongoing military conflict reminds our societies that peace, democracy, and freedom can never be taken for granted, but need to be earned and need to be defended.
We expect to face additional complexity as we progress in 2022, not only resulting from the geopolitical tensions, but also from increasing impacts on global supply and logistics, and in particular, in the context of the new COVID wave in China. That being said, in Q1, we were able to deliver 142 aircraft. Sorry. A +14% year-on-year increase. Commercial aircraft production ramp-up is progressing in this complex environment.
Following an analysis of global customer demand, as well as an assessment of the industrial ecosystem's readiness, we are now working with our industry partners to increase the A320 family production rates further to 75 aircraft a month in 2025.
Now back to the first quarter. Our solid financial results benefited from the effort on competitiveness as well as the impact from cost containment implemented throughout the COVID-19 crisis, which we will progressively phase out as we have resumed activity. Our EBIT adjusted stood at EUR 1.3 billion, and our free cash flow before M&A and customer financing was EUR 4.2 billion. Our solid Q1 EBIT adjusted further includes a non-recurring positive element of EUR 4.4 billion related to retirement obligations, partly offset by EUR 4.2 billion negative impact from the international sanctions against Russia.
During today's call, Dominik and I will update you on how we are impacted by the more complex than anticipated business environment. When it comes to the impact from the international sanctions, our direct exposure to Russian customers is relatively limited across our product portfolio. On the supply side, we see that our operations are protected over the short and medium term. This gives us the time to secure alternative solutions where needed.
Nevertheless, given the increasing complexity of the environment, notably the worsening COVID situation in China, we will continue to closely monitor the risk we are exposed to, especially supply and labor, as well as the associated inflationary pressures. Based on our good Q1 results in Q1, we keep our guidance for 2022 unchanged, although our overall risk profile for the remainder of the year has become more challenging. Let's now look at our commercial environment.
As I said, we are operating in a complex environment, impacting global economic recovery, and we see a contrasted picture when it comes to the evolution of global air traffic. In China, domestic air travel has recently deteriorated sharply and is currently around 20%-30% of its pre-COVID level in flight numbers. The degradation of the COVID situation in the country is a concern. In the short term, this may start to impact the ability of some of our airline customers to take delivery of some of the aircraft.
Moreover, the geopolitical crisis is adding complexity. Even though airspace restrictions in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine itself affect a small portion of global traffic, the rerouting of international flights as well as increasing fuel prices have become a headwind for a number of our airline customers.
In contrast, air travel is coming back strongly and between all countries where travel restrictions have been lifted. This confirms robust underlying air travel demand. Even though the global situation is contrasted for the quarters to come. We still expect commercial air traffic to recover to pre-COVID levels between 2023 and 2025, with domestic and regional markets leading the way. No change on that front in spite of the complexity. Let me remind you of our orders and backlog in Q1.
We booked 253 gross orders, of which 243 single aisle and 10 wide-bodies, confirming our strong commercial momentum. Seven out of the 10 wide-bodies orders were for our recently launched A350 freighter. We saw 170 cancellations, which were already largely anticipated and embedded in our backlog valuation as of end of the year 2021.
As a result, net orders were positive at 83 aircraft, and our backlog in units amounted to 7,023 aircraft at the end of March 2022, including 5,821 A320 family aircraft. With regard to Russia, our backlog includes 13 A350 orders for Aeroflot. Looking at helicopters, in the first quarter, we booked 56 net orders compared to 40 in Q1 last year, well spread across programs.
We were also awarded by OCCAR an order for the Tiger Mark III program for 42 helicopters for France and 18 for Spain. In addition, we continue to see positive momentum for campaigns, mainly in our home countries. Finally, in Defense and Space, in Q1, our order intake was at EUR 3.2 billion, corresponding to a book-to-bill of around 1.3.
It includes the Eurodrone global contract signed in February, covering the development and manufacturing of 20 systems and five years of initial in-service support for Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. This signature kicks off the development of one of the most ambitious European defence programs, which will be entirely designed and developed from the start with our DDMS.
Eurodrone, the result of collaborative work between the industry, OCCAR, and the nations, will strengthen Europe's strategic autonomy and sovereignty with this program. Additional orders booked in the quarter relate mainly to military aircraft. On the FCAS, the Future Combat Air System, we are fully committed to the program, the importance of which is acutely evident in times of crisis. We continue to work towards launching phase IB later this year, which is the next milestone for the success of this crucial European defence program.
On the Space business, we're closely monitoring the situation on all programs conducted in cooperation with the Russian State Space Agency, together with our partners, customers, and suppliers. Let me remind you that we no longer have access to the Soyuz launchers. In the meantime, preparation of 2022 Ariane 5 and Vega C launches are progressing according to plan and schedule.
While we are on the topic of space, I want to thank the teams for the historical agreement signed between Arianespace and Amazon in April for 18 Ariane 6 launches over a period of three years, which illustrates the great potential of this platform. In the context of rising defence spending and a strong drive for European strategic autonomy, we stand ready to support the European governments in this respect. Now, Dominik will take you through our financials. Dominik.
Thank you, Guillaume, and hello, everyone, also from my side. Our Q1 2022 revenues increased to EUR 12.0 billion, up 15% year-on-year, mainly reflecting the higher number of commercial aircraft deliveries and a favorable mix. Our Q1 EBIT adjusted increased to EUR 1.3 billion, up from EUR 4.7 billion in Q1 2021.
The total EUR 0.6 billion increase includes a non-recurring positive element of EUR 0.4 billion related to the remeasurement of past service costs in our retirement obligation. On the other hand, an amount of -EUR 0.2 billion has been recorded in Q1, resulting from the impact of international sanctions against Russia. It also reflects our effort on competitiveness and the impact from cost containment implemented throughout the COVID-19 crisis.
Our Q1 EPS adjusted stood at EUR 1.14 per share based on an average 786 million shares. Our Q1 free cash flow before M&A and customer financing was EUR 0.2 billion, reflecting the level of deliveries, competitiveness, and impact of cost containment, partially offset by an increase in working capital, mainly driven by inventory increases.
Onto the next slide regarding our profitability in more detail. Q1 2022 EBIT reported was EUR 1.4 billion. The level of EBIT adjustments totaled a net positive of EUR 0.2 billion, including a EUR 190 million positive impact from foreign exchange mismatch and balance sheet revaluation, - EUR 11 million related to the A380 program, and - EUR 13 million of other costs, including compliance costs. Earnings per share reported includes a EUR 166 million positive financial results.
It mainly reflects the positive net impact from the revaluation of certain equity investments, partially offset by the revaluation of financial instruments, as well as -EUR 76 million of net interest results. The tax rate on the core business is around 27%. The effective tax rate on net income is 25%, including the tax effect on the revaluation of certain equity investments, partially offset by deferred tax asset impairment.
The resulting net income is EUR 1.2 billion, with earnings per share reported of EUR 1.55. All in all, we were off to a very good start for the fiscal year 2022. Regarding our hedging activities, in Q1 2022, $4.4 billion of hedges matured with associated EBIT impact at a rate of 1.21, versus 1.16 in Q1 2021.
During the quarter, we implemented $2.5 billion of rollovers, mainly to adjust the 2022 intra-year phasing of our hedges. We also implemented $3.5 billion of forwards at a rate of 1.18, mainly for the years 2024 and 2025. $4.3 billion of hedges were disqualified to reflect the impact of the international sanctions against Russia, resulting in a negative impact on financial results.
As a result, our total hedging portfolio in U.S. dollars stands at $87.1 billion, with an average hedge rate of 1.25, unchanged versus December 2021. Now let's look at our cash evolution in Q1 2022. Our gross cash from operations of EUR 1.2 billion mainly reflects our adjusted EBIT, as well as positive phasing of tax payments.
The working capital increase of EUR 4.7 billion mainly reflects the inventory build to support the A320 family ramp up, partially offset by favorable timing of cash receipts and payments. Year- to- date, the A400M continued to weigh on our free cash flow before M&A and customer financing. Q1 2022 CapEx was around -EUR 4.3 billion, versus EUR 4.5 billion in Q1 2021. Recall that the prior year's quarter included the acquisition of real estate assets in the U.K.
We expect our CapEx to be around -EUR 2.4 billion in 2022. Free cash flow reported was EUR 4.2 billion. M&A activities accounted for -EUR 6 million, while customer financing represented an outflow of -EUR 46 million. The aircraft financing environment remains solid, with sufficient liquidity in financial markets for our products.
Going forward, a further cash in as in recent years will not be sustainable, as we anticipate some usage of cash in this and the coming years. Our net cash position is stable at EUR 7.7 billion as of end of March, and our liquidity position remains strong and stood at EUR 28.8 billion. In Q1 2022, Moody's and S&P both confirmed Airbus' credit ratings to respectively A2 and A-, and removed the negative outlook, reflecting our strong financial and operational performance.
Going forward, we will continue to adopt an active approach when it comes to managing our liquidity with the objective of maintaining our robust credit ratings. Now back to Guillaume.
Thank you, Dominik. Very clear. Now on to Commercial Aircraft. In Q1, we delivered 142 aircraft to 48 customers. The net year to date delivery number of 140 reflects a reduction of two aircraft previously recorded as sold in December 2021, for which the transfer was not possible due to the international sanctions put in place. Now when we look at the Q1 2022 situation by aircraft family, on the A220, we delivered 11 aircraft. We continue to ramp up and are on track for the rate 14 that we envisaged for the middle of the decade. On the A320, we delivered 109 aircraft, of which 58 A321, so more than 50%, you can make the calculation.
Our production is progressing towards rate 65 by summer of 2023 in a complex environment. As I mentioned earlier, we are now working with our suppliers and partners to enable a monthly production rate of 75 in 2025. Airbus will meet the higher production rate by increasing capacity at our existing industrial sites and growing the industrial footprint in Mobile in the U.S. with FAL, while investing to ensure all assembly sites are A321 capable.
On the A321XLR, we continue to work towards a first flight by the end of Q2 2022. Initially planned for the end of next year, regrettably, the entry into service is now expected to take place in early 2024. As I said in the previous call, we work hard with our customers to try to mitigate the impact of that situation.
On widebody, we delivered 22 aircraft, of which 16 A350 and six A330. As previously announced, we target to increase our A330 monthly production rate to almost three at the end of 2022. On the A350, we continue to expect to increase the monthly production rate to around six aircraft in early 2023.
In March, very happy to report that the first A380 flight powered by 100% sustainable aviation fuel took place. This is the third Airbus aircraft type to fly with at least one engine operating on 100% SAF after an Airbus A350 in March last year. Last year, in March 2021, and an A319neo in October of last year as well.
Now let's look at Airbus commercial financials for Q1. The financial reflects the net delivery of the 140 aircraft. The 142 that I mentioned before, again, was reduced by the two deliveries under, let's call it international sanctions. Revenues increased by 17% year-on-year, mainly reflecting the higher number of deliveries as well as a favorable mix. Have in mind what I said on the wide-body deliveries.
The increase in EBIT adjusted also reflects the effort on competitiveness and our effort on cost containment. It also includes the non-recurring positive impact from retirement obligations as described by Dominik, partly offset by the impact from international sanctions. On helicopters, in Q1, we delivered 39 helicopters in line with Q1 of 2021. Revenues increased year-on-year, mainly reflecting growth in services and a favorable mix in programs.
EBIT adjusted also reflects non-recurring elements, including the aforementioned positive impact related to the retirement obligations. To complete our review of Q1 2022 with Defence and Space. Revenues increased year-on-year as mainly driven by military aircraft business and following the contract signature for Eurodrone in February. EBIT adjusted also reflects the impact related to retirement obligations, again, partly offset by the consequences of international sanctions on the space business.
On the A400M, we delivered one aircraft in Q1, which is the last of 10 ordered by the Turkish Air Force. We continue with development activities towards achieving the revised capability roadmap. Retrofit activities are progressing in close alignment with the customers. Risks remain on the qualification of technical capabilities and associated costs and across operational reliability, in particular with regard to power plants on cost reductions and on securing export orders in time as per the revised baseline. Now, moving on to the guidance.
Let me remind you of our guidance. On the basis of its 2022 guidance, the company assumes no further disruptions to the world economy, air traffic, the company's internal operations, and its ability to deliver products and services. The company's 2022 guidance is before M&A, and on that basis, the company targets to achieve in 2022 around 720 commercial aircraft deliveries, EUR 5.5 billion of EBIT adjusted, and EUR 3.5 billion of free cash flow before M&A and customer financing.
This guidance reflects our expected growth trajectory and the investments we are making to prepare our future. After a good start in Q1, as we have shared with you, we see an unfavorable evolution in our risk profile for the remainder of 2022. The overall supply chain situation, the COVID situation in China, as well as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, are making the road to a global recovery more difficult. We are again in a tale of great uncertainty, volatility, and complexity, and this brings me to our key priorities.
Next page. Well, first, delivering on our guidance will remain top priority in 2022. We will work hard to mitigate the risks and capitalize on our opportunities across our businesses. Moreover, we will continue to build more resilience, relying on the diversity of our activities, the strong order backlog from our customers, the close collaboration with our supply chain, as well as our capability to transform and innovate.
On our order backlog, we remain focused on filling the skyline for commercial business in the out years. Here we see a strong demand for our single-aisle program. We also see opportunities for the wide-body segment, especially in the second half of the decade, in the context of increasing fuel prices and the need to decarbonize aviation.
For the Military side of our business, the return of war in Europe clearly demonstrates that strong defence capabilities are vital for preserving peace and security. The Strategic Compass, as endorsed by the European Council in March, rightly underlines the importance to reinforce European defence by stimulating innovation and investment.
Here, let me quote, "Measures should be taken by the end of 2022 to promote and facilitate access to private funding for the defence industry, also by making best use of the possibilities offered by the European Investment Bank." End of quote. We welcome the clarity of this decision. We at Airbus, with our long history of European cooperation, stand obviously ready to support our governments and to make contributions to the strength of the armed forces of Europe and NATO.
Moving to the ramp-up of our A320 family, it remains, of course, one of our top priorities. After what we went through together in the past two years, I'm pleased to be in a situation to increase our rate to 75, which again, will benefit the entire global value chain and will support employment, especially in our home countries and in the U.S.
Now I'd like to draw your attention to some important progress on our sustainability journey, which is at the heart of our company's purpose. In Q1, we engaged with the SBTi, the Science Based Targets Initiative and committed to setting science-based carbon reduction targets, including for our Scope 3 Use of Sold Products emissions. We also officially launched a ZEROe demonstrator program with the objective to test a variety of hydrogen technologies, both on the ground and in the air.
The key part of the multi-year program, the hydrogen combustion engine, will be developed by our partner, CFM International. The ZEROe demonstrator will be an important milestone to our roadmap to deliver the world's first zero-emission aircraft by 2035. Airbus' four sustainability commitments also include respecting human rights and fostering inclusion.
On this topic, I'd like to highlight the release of our human rights policy, which defines our approach to human rights and forms the backbone of how we progressively embed respect for human rights throughout our organization and supply chain. As I come to the end of my remarks, I realize that Hélène should have kicked off the call, especially with the safe harbor statement. I was probably a bit too enthusiastic and started a bit too fast. Hélène, should I hand those over to you? It's another innovation today, to end by the safe harbor statement, or no?
Of course. The supporting information package was emailed to you earlier. It includes the slides, which we have taken you through, as well as the financial statements. During this call, we have been doing forward-looking statements, and the package you received contains the safe harbor statement, which applies to this call as well, the entirety of the call. Please read it carefully.
The ex- post safe harbor applies as well.
Absolutely, Guillaume. We now start our Q&A time. Please introduce yourself and your company when asking a question. Please limit yourself to two questions at a time, and this includes sub-questions. Also, as usual, please remember to speak clearly and slowly in order to help all participants, particularly ourselves, to understand your questions. Clotilde, please go ahead and explain the procedure for the participants.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to remove yourself from the queue, please press zero two on your telephone keypad. Participants are requested to use only handsets while asking questions. Anyone who wish to ask a question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad. First question is from Mr. Ben Heelan from Bank of America.
Yeah, morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. The first will be on the production rate increase. Can you talk a little bit about what's giving you the conviction that the supply chain can meet these high rates? We've heard over the past couple of months about supply chain pressures all the way down different tiers of the supply chain. What's giving you the conviction that the supply chain can manage those production rate increases beyond next year? That'll be the first one.
Then secondly, on the XLR, is there any color that you can give around exactly what the challenges are that you faced around the certification? And how should we think about extra costs and risks of penalties now that that entry into service has been delayed? Thank you.
Thank you, Ben. Hope you're well. On the rate 75, we have the demand side and the supply side. I think on the demand side, it's very strong demand and supported by all what we see happening. Your question, I guess, is more on the supply side. What is giving us the trust? Well, that's the assessment that we have run with very large number of suppliers and the most important ones to determine if and when and at what speed this ramp up beyond 65 was possible. We got feedback that tells us that it's possible. Obviously, it's always possible to ramp up beyond a certain number, but in a certain time frame.
We see that from the rate 65 that we intend to reach mid of next year and 2025, this give enough time to have a speed of ramp-up that is consistent with what the supply chain will be able to deliver. Actually, we see on the short term a lot of challenges, and we try to share them with you. It's also linked to the fact that we are moving progressively out of the COVID crisis itself. Emerging from COVID created this complexity on the supply chain. We have as well on top the consequences or the implications of what's happening in Ukraine and the sanctions.
Beyond the short term and even the medium term and the long term, that's what we have assessed with the supply chain, and we feel comfortable enough to launch that rate increase with enough anticipation. You might remember that I said we wanted to decide around middle of the year. Actually, we have accelerated because we had the indicators telling us it was the right moment, and we had the conditions for launching that rate increase. XLR, well, basically it takes more time, and that's unfortunately not completely uncommon in development of new versions of planes. A bit more time. We are coming close to the first flight. We are now way into the development phase.
We have started certification, and we are obviously working with the certification authorities to go through the certification process, and we see that it's going to be going a bit beyond the end of 2023. That's what we are sharing today. When it comes to negotiation, it's customer by customer, and each situation is different, so I don't want to comment on this one because I think I'm not capable of commenting and giving a detailed color on that one, just to be honest on your questions. That's part of the relationship we have with customers, and this is going to move forward. I mean, what we're announcing today is not changing the picture of the XLR program as a whole.
Thank you, Sir. Next question. Sorry. Next question is from Mr. David Perry from JPMorgan. Go ahead.
Hi, Dominik. The first question is this. Well, I guess all of us analysts and investors, we're sitting in front of similar spreadsheets. When I tap these production rates in and I tap in an FX rate of 1.05, it throws out some interesting numbers. I mean, I'm sort of trending towards EUR 10 billion of EBIT in 2025 in civil alone.
I guess, I'd just like to give Dominik the opportunity to tell me, you know, all the things I'm not thinking about, you know, ramp-up costs, inflation or anything to temper my excitement, perhaps. Then the second question is a much simpler one. Could you just comment on the titanium situation? I don't think you said anything or maybe I missed it. Thank you both.
Thank you, David. I will take the easier one, the titanium, because basically there's nothing new on that side. We are developing secondary sources moving forward. You know that we are protected on the short and medium term, so that's basically the situation moving forward, and there's no specific alert or color we can give at that stage. That's the easy part. Dominik, are you excited to take the opportunity to answer the question?
Sure. I mean, you're right on the U.S. dollar. That is actually quite interesting for us, not so much in the near term because as you know, we have a kind of rolling hedging policy where we try to dampen the effects of the volatility in the U.S. dollar-euro exchange rate, by forward selling the future revenue, so to speak.
There is a slide in the deck which I've commented, where you can see that for the years 2022 to 2024, we have about a EUR 20 billion per annum hedge portfolio against the exposure. So, for the years 2023- 2024, that's not fully hedging the exposure, but to a large degree. You mentioned 2025, and we show EUR 13.3 billion forward sales as of March 2022.
A considerable part is hedged and the rate is at 1.25 still. Yes, as we approach 2025, and if rates sustain at such a strong dollar, we would be able to hedge at more attractive rates. That is potentially a good offset to some of the downsides we are facing on the inflation side. I think it yet remains to be seen how these two work against each other.
I think it's right to mention these two as a prime point. Otherwise, I think on all our guidance for 2025, you know, that we have been guiding the year as we did. Yes, what is right is that the ramp up provides opportunities to further significantly improve margin.
Thank you, Dominik.
Next question is for Mr. Tristan Sanson from Exane BNP Paribas.
Yes, good afternoon, everyone. It's Tristan from BNP Paribas, and thanks for taking my question. It's going to be two follow-ups on the topics we just addressed. The first one would be on the inflationary pressure at Airbus, but also within the supply chain. Can you just tell us how you approach the topic? And especially how do you deal with the situation when your suppliers themselves are under significant pressure from raw materials and labor, and ask at the same time to contribute to a continuous increase in production rates? Well, the next question would be more on the quality costs or non-quality costs.
Could you try to quantify for us or at least qualify the level of non-quality costs in A320 production compared to pre-crisis? What is doing significantly better, and can Airbus put a number on that efficiency level compared to pre-crisis? Many thanks.
Dominik, you take the first one on inflation and I'll take the second one.
Okay. Sure. On inflation, I think first I want to highlight that what we've seen in significant energy price spikes and so forth is now abated. We've seen significant headwinds from that in the bridge from 2021 to 2022, but I think it's taken care of. I'm not expecting any wild leaps there because now the procurement, so to speak, for 2022 is quite well secured.
The issue with inflation is the compounding effect over many years. It's not so much an issue in the near term, but if this very, very high inflation persisted for several years in a row, of course, that will compound and that put pressure on us. We have, of course, prices locked into our backlog. We have certain escalation mechanisms, but they have limits.
It's right that also our suppliers would come under pressure, and we have to see on a case-by-case basis how we deal with that. I think it's a little speculative because nobody knows today whether we will see really high inflation way beyond the inflation targets of the central banks for long. The cost of quality, I think that's something.
Yeah. The cost of non-quality, it's a good question, Tristan. Actually, compared to last year, that's a review we did recently, we've not seen the non-quality changing significantly. It's very consistent with last year. What is changing tremendously is the ability of our suppliers to deliver on time. Therefore, this is leading to a number of quality disruptions and situation we have to manage, which are time-consuming and are quite expensive.
That's similar to what we call the acceleration cost, which is the ramp-up and the effect of the supply chain that has difficulties to follow and given the complex environment we're in, as we call it, this is indeed very significant. Well, I'm not able to give an answer to where does it stand compared to pre-COVID.
I'm not sure, Dominik, if you look at it that we have really looked at it in this way. It's more trying to assess, or first to keep it as low as we can and making sure we have limited impact on the FAL, ideally, no impact on the FAL, to not slow down the ramp-up. Also managing the prices one by one, putting a lot of resources as soon as we see the crisis emerging to make sure it can be managed before, again, it's reaching the FAL and potentially having an impact on the date of delivery of the plane.
That this effort that is today higher than what it was in COVID, by far higher. I have difficulties to compare before COVID, so I'm sorry I cannot give an answer with substance, but the fact is it's significant. Again, I'm sorry. We are in a comparable situation. I don't have figures to share.
Thank you, Sir. Next question is from Madam [inaudible] from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening, Guillaume and Dominik. Thank you for taking my questions. I have a few, and I think, you know, a lot of questions have already been answered. Just to follow on the kind of cost inflation piece, obviously, we've recently seen the settlement of some of the U.K. Strike action resulting in kind of wages increasing by you know, 8.5%. Could you give us a bit more color on sort of how you're seeing labor inflation, particularly as we're in a kind of ramp-up period?
Then a second question just on PDPs. Could you give us a comment on kind of the trends that you're seeing in PDPs, you know, in the first quarter and what you're expecting to see through the rest of the year, I guess, as we're seeing some normalization happening versus what we saw last year? Thanks very much.
Thank you for the questions. I'll try to address the first one, and Dominik, I guess you'll take the one on the PDPs. We are after two years of little increase of salaries, given the COVID situation, the restructuring, what we call the Odyssey plan, but that's something that we see as well in the rest of the industry, ramping up again, having delivered a strong 2021 in an environment where it's difficult to find the resources, and there's indeed more power on the side of employees in general, and also good reasons to ask for salary increase when we see the inflation.
It's no surprise that the level of salary increase that we are giving and probably will be continued to give is going to be significantly higher than what it was in the previous years. The challenge for us is to try to come to an agreement that makes sense for our employees and makes sense for the company. Honestly, I'm very thankful to what the teams have done in COVID-19. I think they've done a great job in going through this very difficult situation and navigating, weathering the crisis we've been through.
Therefore, we're trying to find that sweet spot that makes sense for our employees and makes sense for our employer. The figures, the numbers are obviously higher. We are in a situation where, for instance, the inflation in Spain is 10%. There's a diversity between the different countries we have where we are located. In some countries, it's really high, and we want also to make sure our employees remain committed to the company, that they are loyal and happy with Airbus. Again, that's the sweet spot we try to find.
Yeah. PDPs, if you look into our balance sheet, you'll see that the net of contract assets liability has actually given us a positive impact on cash flow statement. I think this is a sign that the high negative variance we had on the working capital on PDPs last year, which was still the overhang from the deferral activities in the COVID crisis, is largely worked off. We expect that kind of PDP net PDP flow to be more neutral this year. With the ramp there's also some increase in trade liabilities, which will help to sort of offset the inventory increase in our working capital.
Thank you.
Thank you, Madam. Next question is from Mr. Christophe Menard from Deutsche Bank. Go ahead.
Yes, good evening. I have two questions. The first one is on the profile to get to 75. Are you planning to be at 70 in 2024 or is it a different profile? I will follow up with a second question afterwards.
It's a bit premature to give you the number of deliveries amount in 2024 and 2025. We intend to reach the rate 65 mid of next year. That's an important data point. Then, the 75 in 2025, and we do this progressively as we move forward. No specific figure to be shared on the precise date with the precise number and so on, except mid of 2023, 65.
Okay, thank you very much. The second question is completely unrelated. It's more on Defence and Space. It's, I mean, I was wondering in the context of cybersecurity being so important right now, what is your, what is your strategy with regard to your cybersecurity entity, which appears probably a bit small versus other peers? Could you share with us your strategic vision around this subdivision, I would say?
Yes. First and foremost, we want to be protective, our products, our services, and therefore our customers. There's a lot of our cybersecurity resources, skills, talents, capabilities that are focused on protecting those assets, and therefore, serving customers with cybersecure solutions. That's a very important part of what we do. On top, we are selling cyber services to third parties, to external customers, and that's also something we do.
That's what we do in our cybersecurity business, which is embedded in our Airbus Defence and Space division, because then those Cybersecurity services are addressing mainly and first and foremost our governmental customers that are also customers with whom we work on the Defence, on the Space, on the Military aircraft. It's targeted to those customers.
Moving forward, we want to be doing more of this, I mean, of protecting our customers and serving our customers, and this has to be seen in combination. We are not trying to be bigger than others in cyber services to third parties. We want to be excellent on what we do on our platforms, on our other services, and again, serving these critical customers as good as we can where it makes sense.
Thank you, Sir. Next question is for Mr. Douglas Harned from Bernstein. Sir, please go ahead.
Good evening. Thank you. You know, the first question is on some of the deliveries you've had where you actually haven't completed a physical delivery, yet you've transferred title and counted as a delivery. We saw this Aeroflot issue with the two airplanes. What I'm interested in is, you know, I believe you have some like that with China. You know, how many airplanes do you have in that state, in a sense, not physically delivered? And do you see any risk around those airplanes as we go forward, those deliveries? That would be the first question.
The second is a follow-up on the A321XLR. You know, if you go back about three or four years ago, there were questions discussed around safety with customers, I know, on, you know, the safety of this new design with the fuel tank. Was it a surprise to you to see this come up with the EASA now? Is it something that also is being done in parallel with the FAA, given that the FAA has become, you know, much more, much deeper in the scrutiny of a lot of certifications lately?
Dominik, do you want to take the question on the ADA?
Yeah, sure. The advanced delivery agreements where basically we have a situation, for instance, when a lessor is taking delivery, but the customer is unable to pick it up at that point in time. It's a typical example. Obviously, Aeroflot also have an example. It's a situation where really the full aircraft price is paid, where all the acceptance process is run through in terms of inspection and acceptance by the customer. It's purely a kind of mechanical, automatic transfer at a pre-agreed date, which needs to happen.
We don't have a lot of these aircraft in storage. The number is fluctuating depending on certain customers. I do not consider it as a material risk. I think it was a truly exceptional because of the so-called frustration of the contract to now simply physically do what we are committed to do, to simply hand that thing over to the customer. It's just frustrating because of the sanctions.
It's a very specific case linked to the fact that, the aircraft was paid, the transfer of title was done, but the physical move was no longer possible because of sanctions preventing that physical movement. That's really exceptional. On the XLR, indeed, the EASA and the FAA are cooperating and working together. There is a primary certification authority that for Airbus is EASA.
We are primarily working with EASA, and we are moving forward in the development and the certification process like we do for other products. There are some modifications that are quite conventional or those which are a bit more specific to this variant of the plane. Basically, that's the classical development and certification process that we see moving forward. Unfortunately, in those situations, it's not rare and.
That we have to take more time to fully comply and to demonstrate the on paper, then we've ground test and we flight test the compliance of what we design and produce with the requirements. That's basically where we stand today. Nothing that I would consider exceptional. It takes a bit more time than what we had anticipated at the beginning.
Thank you, Sir. Next question is from Mr. Robert Stallard from Vertical Research. Please go ahead.
Thanks so much and good evening.
Good evening. Hello.
A couple of questions from me. First of all, Guillaume, you mentioned China as a risk. I was wondering if you'd seen any actual delivery delays, as yet from Chinese customers, and just, maybe an idea of how many planes you have scheduled for delivery, in 2022. Then secondly, on the XLR, just to follow up, do these changes potentially add weight to the aircraft and impact the targeted range of the plane? Thank you.
I think we have sort of the same number of deliveries planned for 2022 than what we had in 2021 for the Chinese customers, broadly. In numbers, which is a smaller proportion given that we ramped up the deliveries in 2022 compared to 2021. Yes, China is a risk because of the Omicron situation. I mean, we don't know how long the measures, the restrictions, the lockdowns, and the quarantines which are in place today will last. It has an impact on the short-term ability of the airlines to come and take delivery, but also on their own financial situation, if the very low air traffic that we observe today in China keeps extending to the second quarter and the third quarter.
That's why we are monitoring the situation in China very carefully. The only good data point we have is the way it was managed in 2020. You remember that we were in a rather similar situation that was recovered later in the year, and finally we found our way forward, and to some extent as well last year. That's why we see it as a risk, but it's a kind of risk which has been managed in the previous years, and therefore we need to see how it plays out this year. On the XLR, well, we are in the development of the product. Is this impacting the weight or the range? I don't know what you mean by this. It's the development of the plane. It's the development of a variant.
We have strict commitments to our customers when it comes to the flight and mission performance, and we want to stick to those commitments, and there's nothing to be reported here. That's just the time it takes to get there. That is a bit more than what we were expecting before.
Thank you, Sir. Next question is from Mr. Charles Armitage from Citi. Please go ahead.
Yes, good evening. Just looking at the sort of puts and takes in the quarter. At the end in your full-year presentation, I think it was that your expected FX rate was 1.24 for Q1, and it came in at 1.21, so that's probably EUR 100 million tailwind. You had EUR 400 million write-backs. You had EUR 200 million negative from sanctions. That's sort of EUR 300 million tailwind, if you will. Then you've got the other couple of things, just would like some comments on the competitiveness, the increased competitiveness, which is presumably permanent, but also the cost containment, which you mentioned would gradually decrease. Can you give any idea of that tail, the headwind going forward as that cost containment decreases, please?
Sure, Charles. First of all, Q1, as you rightly say, reflects EUR 4.2 billion of the Ukraine crisis. We have to stress that that is only, kind of, the immediate impact on the balance sheet. There are certain effects, which concerns remain for the remaining three quarters of the year, which are actually more significant than the EUR 4.2 billion.
There is more to come and headwind from missing deliveries that were planned but not materializing to Russia, for instance, and also some impact on the space business, as we mentioned. That cannot be extrapolated, so to speak. There will be more. It's not a pure one-off, but there will be more headwinds during the year from that.
We will need the outperformance, which I think you referred to in the Q1, to mitigate the negative impact from the Ukraine crisis. On the other hand, the EUR 4.4 billion of this remeasurement in pension liability is a clear one-off, which will only occur once. From that perspective, I think, as we said, the guidance has become more challenging, and the risk profile has been more acute because of the pressure that has been put on the fiscal year 2022 by the Ukraine crisis. Maybe a last question?
Last question is from Mr. Harry Breach from Stifel. Go ahead.
Yes. Thank you. Thank you for taking my question and good evening, Guillaume , Dominik and Hélène. Just two simple ones, hopefully. Maybe Guillaume, you know, the last couple of months since we spoke for the full year earnings, clearly there have been one or two geopolitical events, which, you know, can change how customers think about fleet planning. Can you tell us how you're seeing the current level of sales campaign activity for Airbus?
Completely separately, just thinking about the inventory of completed but undelivered aircraft, Dominik, my math is bad at the best of times, but if I think about the number you talked about in February, which I think was a little bit under 100, and the deliveries in the first quarter and your production, should we be thinking about around 100 units at the moment that are completed but undelivered? Can you give us your best idea today, given what's changed in recent months, about when that 100 units might return to a more normal level, which I think in the past you guys have said might be closer to sort of 30 or 40 aircraft?
Dominik will answer your second question, and I will take the first one, and I will be quick on the first one. The momentum on the sales campaigns remains very strong. Yes, number of events have taken place, but still, we see a very strong momentum. Yeah.
On this undelivered, finished aircraft, we have deliberately been kind of not extremely vocal about that as we progress because it was really a thing that was making sense to comment when the demand side was the problem for taking the delivery. Now, it's more coming to the supply side, and that means that in some aircraft you have basically invested all the capital, and they're close to finished but don't qualify for the category anymore because maybe a part is missing.
Yeah. With the supply side becoming more of an issue, the number becomes actually meaningless. I think you should really focus then on the inventories we disclose and all that. It has not materially changed, I would say, from the levels we had in the prior quarters.
This closes our conference call for this time. If you have any further questions, please send an email to Philippe, Gustav, or myself, and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you, and I'm looking forward to speaking to you again soon.
Thank you everyone. Bye-bye. Have a good day or good evening. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference call. Thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect.