The head of the world’s biggest plane-making company has warned staff of the “significant” financial and logistical damage it could incur from global trade tensions and instability. Airbus overtook Boeing to become the world’s leading aircraft manufacturer in 2019, after outdoing its rival in terms of net profits, aircraft orders, deliveries and backlog. Increasing global instability has compelled the Netherlands-based company, which is a major European defence supplier, to caution staff of “difficult” times to come in an internal memo seen by Reuters, however.

CEO Guillaume Faury wrote: “The beginning of 2026 is marked by an unprecedented number of crises and by unsettling geopolitical developments. We should proceed in a spirit of solidarity and self-reliance. The industrial landscape in which we operate is sown with difficulties, exacerbated by the confrontation between the US and China.”

He also said trade pressures had already “caused significant collateral damage, logistically and financially”.

While Mr Faury did not identify specific examples of the geopolitical tensions impacting business in the memo, the last few weeks have seen increasing fragmentation between the US and its NATO allies, linked to Donald Trump‘s claims on Greenland.

The company also uses US parts for jets assembled in China, making it vulnerable to a tit-for-tat trade war between the two countries last year, which saw Mr Trump first impose sweeping tariffs and later freeze exports of components including engines to the East Asian country.

The US leader also threatened to impose tariffs on six EU nations, the UK and Norway over opposition to his takeover of Greenland this week, before withdrawing the threat on Wednesday night.

The US leader backed down on the threat after announcing a framework deal on Arctic security following a meeting with NATO chief Mark Rutte at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Alongside putting business around the world in jeopardy, Mr Trump’s often-erratic statements and decisions have frequently rocked financial markets, which rallied in Europe and the US following the rowback on his tariff threats.