Airbus shareholders are gathering in Amsterdam for their Annual General Meeting on April 14, a pivotal moment overshadowed by the company’s weakest quarterly delivery performance in nearly two decades. The European aerospace giant handed over just 114 commercial aircraft in the first quarter of 2026, a 16% drop compared to the same period last year.
The stark delivery figures, announced just days before the AGM, highlight a severe and persistent production bottleneck. The situation is particularly acute in the narrowbody segment, where deliveries of the A320neo family—comprising the A319neo, A320neo, and A321neo—plummeted from 106 to 81 aircraft, a decline of roughly 24%. Chief Executive Guillaume Faury has pointed to ongoing engine supply issues from Pratt & Whitney, which powers approximately 40% of the global A320 fleet. Airbus is seeking compensation for these delays, a dispute that may ultimately head to arbitration.
Despite this operational turmoil, the shareholder meeting agenda carries a positive financial signal. Investors are set to approve a dividend of 3.20 euros per share for the 2025 fiscal year, payable on April 23. This payout is underpinned by a solid full-year 2025 performance, where Airbus generated revenues of 73.4 billion euros, an adjusted EBIT of 7.1 billion, and a free cash flow of 4.6 billion.
The contrast between robust financials and stuttering production defines the current Airbus story. On the demand side, the picture remains exceptionally strong. In March alone, the company booked 331 new aircraft orders. These included 100 A320neo jets for AerCap, 101 for China Eastern Airlines, and 25 for Juneyao Air. Delta Air Lines secured 16 A330-900s and 15 A350-900s, while Atlas Air confirmed an order for 20 A350 freighters. The Indian low-cost carrier IndiGo, a major Airbus client, was recently celebrated for receiving its 500th direct delivery from the manufacturer and leads the global order book with 1,400 aircraft on order.
This unbroken demand underscores that the company’s problem is one of supply, not market appetite. The monthly delivery trend showed a partial recovery from 19 aircraft in January to 60 in March, but achieving the full-year target of around 870 deliveries now requires a significant acceleration. To hit that goal, Airbus must deliver an average of roughly 84 planes per month for the remainder of the year, placing immense pressure on its supply chain and final assembly lines.
Governance is also on the AGM agenda. Shareholders will vote on two new supervisory board appointments: Henriette Hallberg Thygesen is nominated for a three-year term, and Oliver Zipse, the Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG since 2019, is proposed for a one-year term as the successor to Victor Chu.
The Airbus share price reflects the mounting pressure, having fallen approximately 17% since the start of the year to trade at 169.50 euros following the quarterly data release. All eyes are now on April 28, when the company will publish its complete first-quarter financial results. That disclosure will be critical for investors to assess whether management has a credible plan to close the delivery gap created in the first three months of the year.