Hello, everybody. Thank you for joining us today, and welcome to this Airbus SE pre Q1 2026 call. As usual, this call is planned to last around 10 minutes, and it does not include Q&A. It will remain accessible on our investors website until our Q1 2026 earnings are released. Throughout this call, I will be making forward-looking statements. I invite you to refer to our safe harbor statement that appear in our most recent disclosure presentation slides published on February 18th. That safe harbor statement applies to this call as well. Please read it carefully. The purpose of this call is to assist you in the financial modeling of Airbus Q1 2026 financial performance. Our quarterly closing and audit processes are underway, and as such, we will only refer to information that has already been disclosed or is otherwise publicly available in the market.
Any updates to our guidance or forecasts will be communicated through a formal announcement. Our quiet period begins on April 16, 2026, and our Q1 2026 earnings release is scheduled on April 28th, 2026, after market closing. Let's now start with the mechanical element impacting our profitability on a year-on-year comparison for the quarter. To make it clear, all statements I will be making refer to Q1 2026 versus Q1 2025. Starting with our commercial aircraft business and with the usual building blocks. On volume mix, we delivered 114 aircraft in Q1 2026 versus 136 in Q1 2025, meaning -22 aircraft versus the previous year Q1. Thereof, +2 A220s, -25 A320s, +2 A350s, and -1 A330.
Overall, the lower volume of commercial aircraft deliveries in Q1, as well as the less favorable mix, should result in a mechanical negative impact on fixed costs under-absorption for the quarter. Moving to FX, as per the full year 2025 disclosure, a roughly $0.01 degradation was forecast in the average blended rates for our coverage portfolio for Q1 2026. 120 in Q1 this year versus 119 in Q1 last year. As a reminder, the rule of thumb for $0.01 change in hedge rates results in EUR ± 150 million for the full year at present delivery rates, depending on the portfolio volume and direction of a rate movement in the quarter. Regarding R&D, in line with the previous statements made at full year 2025 results, our R&D expenses for 2026 are expected to increase versus 2025.
When it comes to Spirit integration, as previously mentioned, we assume a low triple digit negative impact in 2026. This being said, considering the phasing of deliveries, we do not expect the impact of Q1 to be material. Last but not least, let me remind you that we did not record any non-recurring elements for our commercial aircraft business in Q1 2025. Let's now have a look at the performance in the division. Starting with Airbus Helicopters. With regard to Airbus Helicopters, we observed a similar volume of helicopter delivered in the first quarter of the year versus Q1 last year in a back-end loaded year. With regards to Airbus Defence and Space, we expect the divisional performance to continue to progress in line with the trajectory presented during the business update in June 2025. Now, I will briefly address some elements of a free cash flow before customer financing.
Similar to EBIT Adjusted, free cash flow should reflect the soft and lower volume of commercial aircraft deliveries. Additionally, our inventory is expected to reflect the following elements. First, the planned inventory build-up to support both our commercial ramp-up and the growth in our divisions. Secondly, the industrial disruptions linked to the panel issues that we continued to address. With this, I would like to end this pre Q1 call. Starting from Thursday morning, we enter into quiet period, and therefore, we will not be able to answer any question concerning the Q1 2026 performance before our results are announced on April 28th, 2026, which as you recall, will be in the evening. Thank you for your attention and speak to you soon.