Ricardo Chocarro Melgosa
CEO Aernnova – June 15, 2022
With the worst of the pandemic over, but affected by the devastating war in Ukraine, we are seeing growth coming back to Aernnova, either through the incorporation of new members to the Group (Evora), the increase of demand in existing programs (A220, A320,…), or the awarding of new projects (Honda, Heart, Lilium, IAI,…).
FY2022 is being the first year of recovery of the aeronautic sector after the impact of Covid-19. Although air traffic and aircraft deliveries are still far from pre-crisis levels, this recovery is allowing us to observe an increase in activity in most of our companies.
Speaking about growth, we have recently celebrated the incorporation of Aernnova Evora to the Group. Last May 2nd the agreement with Embraer announced at the beginning of the year was closed and the ownership of Evora companies fully transferred into Aernnova. Evora Programs such as the Praetor 500/600 or the E1/E2 E-Jets family allow us to grow and to increase our portfolio of single-aisle aircrafts and business jets. The Aernnova family is growing with the addition of 548 Evora colleagues.
Finally, and also as a contribution to growth, at Aernnova we continue to demonstrate our commitment to sustainability, our capacity for innovation and our good commercial positioning in the new air mobility market. The German company Lilium has relied on Aernnova to design and manufacture the structure that supports the propulsion of the Lilium Jet, a fully electric, low-noise level, high-performance vertical take-off and landing aircraft with zero operational emissions, which will contribute to the decarbonization of air transport.
On a less positive note, the terrible war in Ukraine is having worldwide economic consequences, aggravating the inflationary effects caused by the increase of energy costs, raw materials, logistics and wages. The potential effect of this on aircraft demand is not yet clear, but the negative impact on our production costs and competitiveness is already obvious. Adherence to our Efficiency and Lean pillars is key to fight this situation.
Some of these topics, among others, are expanded in this issue of ANNnews. As usual, we hope you would find it interesting and useful.