Safran's MRO activity, another victim of the pandemic crisis |
| Léo Barnier |
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09 APR 2020 | 324 words
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© Safran Nacelles |
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For several weeks now, air traffic has been fading away worldwide. While airlines were the first to be affected, the shock waves are being felt gradually across the entire industry. The impact of the shutdown in traffic is now being felt by the MRO sector, as Philippe Petitcolin, the Chief Executive Officer of the Safran group, observed. And the collapse has been brutal.
According to Philippe Petitcolin, Safran's maintenance and support activities were not too badly affected during the first fortnight in March. However, they fell significantly from the middle of the month onwards, he concedes. The first sector affected was the sale of spare parts to airlines, with a major drop in orders. The effects then began to be felt across the board.
The CEO expects a 30 to 35% fall in all Safran MRO activities over the coming weeks. And he estimates that the crisis will get worse over the next few weeks, between airlines which will continue to reduce their activities and those which will collapse financially.
Philippe Petitcolin isn't making any long-term forecasts. Nevertheless, he is hoping for a strong recovery in the second half of the year as traffic restarts. In any case, the financial impact should be very heavy because, as the CEO reminds us, it is the MRO and after-sales activity volumes which currently help to determine the margins for the aviation industry as a whole and the Safran group in particular.
Remember that during the presentation of its annual results at the end of February, Safran was predicting "between 7% and 9% growth in service activities for commercial engines, as long as the impact of the Coronavirus on air traffic does not extend beyond the first quarter of 2020". The shutdown should therefore be severe. This will also be the case for service activities for aviation equipment and systems, for which the dynamic had been even higher than for civilian engines during 2019.
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Léo Barnier
Specialized journalist
Industry & Technology, Equipments, MRO
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