Hello, everybody. Thank you for joining us today, welcome to this Airbus SE Pre-Q2 2026 Call. As usual, this call does not include Q&A and will remain accessible on our investors website until our H1 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 appears in our most recent disclosure presentation slides published on April 28th. 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 the Airbus Q2 2026 financial performance. Our quarterly closing and audit processes are underway, 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 forecast will be communicated through a formal announcement.
Our quiet period begins on July 16th, 2026, our H1 2026 earnings release is scheduled on July 29th, 2026, after market closing. Let's now start with the mechanical elements impacting our profitability on a year-on-year comparison for the quarter. To make it clear, all the statements I will be making refer to Q2 2026 versus Q2 2025. Starting with our commercial aircraft business with the usual building blocks. On volume mix, we delivered 237 aircraft in Q2 2026 versus 170 in Q2 2025, meaning plus 67 aircraft versus the previous year's Q2 in a year that remains backend loaded. Moving on to FX, as per the Q1 2026 disclosure, a roughly $0.04 degradation was forecast in the average blended rates for our coverage portfolio for Q2 2026. That is to say $1.21 in Q2 this year versus $1.17 in Q2 last year.
As a reminder, the rule of thumb for a $0.01 change in hedge rate results in around 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 and reiterated at our Q1 2026 earnings release, our R&D expenses for 2026 are expected to increase versus 2025. When it comes to the former Spirit AeroSystems work packages, as previously mentioned, we assume a low triple-digit negative impact for the full year 2026. We also expect this headwind to be consistent with a yearly phasing of deliveries. Last but not least, let me remind you that we did not record any non-recurring elements for our commercial aircraft business in Q2 2025.
Let's now have a look at the performance in the divisions. Continuing with Airbus Helicopters. With regard to Airbus Helicopters, we observed a similar volume of helicopters delivered in the second quarter of the year versus Q2 last year in a backend-loaded year. Finally, with regard 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 the free cash flow before customer financing. Consistent with EBIT adjusted, free cash flow should reflect the higher volume of commercial aircraft deliveries. While inventory levels should be reduced by this increased delivery volume, it is also expected to reflect the planned inventory buildup to support our ramp-up and growth in our divisions.
All in all, as mentioned in our Q1 earnings call, we expect our free cash flow generation for the quarter to turn back into positive territory for the second quarter. With this, I would like to end this pre-Q2 call. Starting from Thursday morning, we enter into a quiet period, and therefore, we will not be able to answer any question concerning the H1 2026 performance before our results are announced on July 29th, 2026, which, as you recall, will be in the evening. We will also be very happy to meet you on Tuesday next week in London at the occasion of the Airbus Business Update. Thank you for your attention and speak to you soon.