Safran chief says aircraft makers have ‘unprecedented supply crisis’

French jet engine maker Safran has warned that the “unprecedented crisis of supply” in the aerospace industry will stretch into next year as aircraft manufacturers struggle to source the parts and staff they need to keep up with resurgent demand.  Safran’s chief executive Olivier Andriès told the Financial Times there had been no let up in supply chain problems dogging the industry since the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that caused shortages of raw materials. “We have to fight every day to get the parts. This is true for Safran and also the whole industry,” Andriès said in an interview. “We’ve gone from an unprecedented crisis of demand back in 2020. Now demand is back but we are in an unprecedented crisis of supply. We have never seen this before,” he added. Others in the industry are also facing similar headwinds, with Airbus warning of supply chain constraints lasting until 2024, as airlines rush to order new aircraft to meet high travel demand. Andriès added the constraints would likely last into 2024, limiting the speed at which the sector can further increase production. “I would like to say it’s going to be over in three months. But this is not true . . . it is going to last,” he said. Despite the challenges, Paris-based Safran now expects sales growth of around 20% this year. That would put it on track for revenues to recover to their pre-pandemic 2019 peak of E25b by next year, according to analysts, and the shares have also rallied 55% in the past 12 months. The company generates significant revenues from supplying both civil and military engines, as well as from its aircraft interiors business, which together accounted for close to 60% of group revenues in 2022.  In a sign of how Safran is on firmer financial footing, the company is now looking at bigger acquisitions and is also open to further share buybacks, the CEO said. <br/>