Hello, everybody. Thank you for joining us today, and welcome to this Airbus SE pre-Q3 2026 call. As usual, this call does not include Q&A and will remain accessible on our investor website until our nine-month 2026 earnings are released. For future reference, the date of this pre-quarterly communication will be available on our website within the Investors section as we approach the date. Throughout this call, I will be making forward-looking statements. I invite you to refer to our safe harbor statement that appears on the most recent disclosure presentation slides published on July 29. 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' 2026 Q3 and year-to-date 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 forecast would be communicated through a formal announcement. Our quiet period begins on October 15, 2026, and our nine-month 2026 earnings release is scheduled on October 28, 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 on profitability refer to Q3 2026 versus Q3 2025. Starting with our commercial aircraft business and the usual building blocks. On volume mix, we delivered 196 aircraft in Q3 2026 versus 201 in Q3 2025. Please note that it includes - 3 A320s and - 5 A330s versus the previous year Q3.
Therefore, we expect our profitability to reflect a mechanical fixed cost under absorption resulting from lower deliveries, notably on the wide-body side, and the effect of communicated quality topics. Please also note that 2026 remains a back-end loaded year. Moving on to FX, and as per the H1 2026 disclosure, a stable average blended rate of 1.18 for our coverage portfolio was forecast for Q3 2026 as opposed to Q3 2025. Regarding research and development and in line with our previous statements and reiterated at our H1 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 material non-recurring elements for our commercial aircraft business in Q3 2025. Let's now have a look at the performance of a division. Continuing with Airbus Helicopters, we expect a similar volume of helicopters delivered in Q3 2026 versus Q3 2025 with a less favorable mix. Please note that last year, Q3 represented exceptionally strong return on sales performance. Finally, with regard to Airbus Defence and Space, we expect divisional performance to progress moderately, though at slower pace than the first two quarters of 2026. Now, I will briefly address some elements of free cash flow before customer financing. Considering the usual back-end loaded nature of our delivery profile, we expect our year-to-date free cash flow generation to be consistent with the pattern observed over the past couple of years.
Nevertheless, our inventory levels should also reflect an elevated number of wide-body aircraft to be delivered, as well as our ongoing ramp-up across businesses. With this, I would like to end this pre-Q3 call. Starting from October 15 morning, we enter into a quiet period, and therefore, we will not be able to answer any questions regarding the nine-month 2026 performance before our results are announced on October 28, 2026, which, as you recall, will be in the evening. Thank you for your attention and speak to you soon.