French aircraft engine supplier Safran posted higher than expected earnings for the first half of 2022. While supply chain problems continue to plague the industry, the Paris-based company reported a 59% increase in its operating profit, reaching around $1.1 billion during the period.
In its financial report for H1 2022, which was released on July 28, 2022, Safran also said its revenue grew to $8.7 billion, reflecting a significant 24% increase when compared to the same period a year ago.
“Safran posted solid results in the first half of the year amid improvement in air traffic in all regions of the world except China,” Safran chief executive Olivier Andriès was cited as saying in the company’s statement.
The CEO noted that the ongoing recovery in air travel has increased demand for spare aircraft parts. Safran also noticed that demand for medium-haul aircraft parts was notably higher than for wide-body planes.
However, Safran admitted that supply chain problems have made the manufacturing process more challenging.
“Our ability to ramp up production rates is somewhat constrained by a fragile supply chain as the world emerges from the pandemic and we are working hard to ensure timely delivery to airframers,” Andriès said.
During H1 2022, the combined delivery of CFM engines reached 492 units, 465 of which were LEAP turbofan engines and 27 were CFM56s. The recent result is an improvement on the 448 aircraft engines delivered by the company during the same period in 2021.