Jet engine maker and aerospace supplier Safran has reported strong first quarter revenues in commercial engines.

Safran, which has a facility in Gloucester, saw Q1 2023 revenue of €5,266 million, up 29.4%.

The company said its narrowbody air traffic was back to the 2019 level and LEAP deliveries were up 53%, in line with the full-year target.

CEO Olivier Andriès said: "Safran had a strong start of the year, especially in the civil aftermarket which is benefiting from the recovery in narrowbody traffic to pre-crisis levels and from airlines' readiness plan for the summer season.

"Our deliveries of LEAP engines have stepped up as planned, an encouraging performance in a context of persistent difficulties in the global supply chain.

"We are committed to meeting our customer commitments and remain both vigilant and fully confident in our efforts to offset inflation and to deliver our financial performance for the year."

The firm said the return to 2019 level of global narrowbody capacity was buoyed by a rebound in Chinese domestic air traffic after the lift of travel restrictions in December 2022. In the first three months of 2023, narrowbody ASK were at 100% (on average) of 2019.

Revenue growth was mainly fueled by propulsion and aircraft interiors activities.

Propulsion increased by 34.9% driven by a strong civil aftermarket activity supported by a high level of spare parts sales for CFM56.

Equipment & Defense was up 10.3% driven by strong aftermarket services in all divisions.

Aircraft Interiors revenue increased by 37.7% driven by spare parts deliveries both for seats and cabin.

Safran expects to achieve for full-year 2023 revenue of at least €23.0 billion.

Yesterday, Punchline reported on Safran's new signing of a contract with Airbus Defence and Space to provide the wheels and brakes system work package for a strategic European drone project. You can read all about this positive development for Gloucester here .