Airbus confirms OneSat satellite programme hit by major charges

Airbus confirmed on Thursday that the OneSat family of commercial telecom satellites had been swept up in financial charges at its Space business. In November, Airbus announced E400m of charges related to unidentified satellite programmes at the nine-month stage, mostly taken in the third quarter. Industry sources said at the time that these notably included the OneSat family. On Thursday, Airbus added another 200m of charges, bringing last year's total to E600m. "OneSat is a programme that is ongoing. We have recorded charges in 2023, big time, but we remain very committed to the programme," Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury told a news conference. OneSat is a family of mid-market geostationary satellites that can be reconfigured in orbit with an eye on contracts from the telecoms sector, whose technological needs change rapidly in contrast to the increasing lifespans of modern satellites. It was launched in 2019 with Inmarsat as a debut customer and Airbus has so far sold nine of the satellites, including one to an undisclosed customer. But in the five years since it was launched, the commercial satellite market has been shaken up by new competition including the spread of low-Earth low-cost constellations. In an interview on Thursday, CFO Thomas Toepfer stressed OneSat was one among several programmes involved in a recently completed review of the Space portfolio.<br/>