Airbus // Universal Registration Document 2023

1. Information on the Company’s Activities 1.2 Non-Financial Information

Electric flight The Company’s work in electric flight has laid the foundations for the future concept of lower carbon commercial aircraft. Since 2014, the Company has been exploring how recent technology advancements, from battery capacity and autonomy to electric propulsion, can help drive the development of new kinds of aerial vehicles with the potential for significantly reduced impact. EcoPulse. The Company has partnered with Daher and Safran to develop a distributed hybrid-propulsion aircraft demonstrator with the support of France’s CORAC and DGAC and for which it is providing battery technology and overseeing aerodynamic modelling. EcoPulse successfully flew for the first time with its electric engines in November 2023. Urban air mobility ambition. The idea for a compact “flying taxi” first came from the Company’s desire to take city commuting into the air in a sustainable way. The Company has learned a lot from the test campaigns with two demonstrators, CityAirbus and Vahana. Beyond the vehicle, the Company is working with partners, cities, and city inhabitants in order to create the ecosystem that is essential for this new operating environment to deliver a sustainable service to society.

› › Following the partnership between the Company and Renault Group to advance research on electrification and mature technologies associated with next generation battery systems, another partnership was with STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications. The agreement includes the cooperation on power electronics Research & Development to support more efficient and lighter power electronics, essential for future hybrid-powered aircraft and full-electric urban air vehicles. › › In October 2023, Airbus Helicopters’ demonstrator FlightLab successfully tested an electric flight control system in preparation of a new human machine interface (HMI) that will equip CityAirbus NextGen, Airbus’ eVTOL prototype. This milestone represents an important step towards ushering in a new generation of electric powered urban air mobility aircraft.

Strategic pathway 4 Investing in smart air traffic management (ATM) solutions and optimised operations

Improving the efficiency of air transport operations and infrastructure could reduce emissions by up to 10% (source: ATAG). The Company therefore supports initiatives aimed at reducing ATM inefficiencies such as the Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research programme (SESAR), such as the HERON project aiming to reduce CO 2 emissions from air transport and offer mitigation through the development of activities including more efficient aircraft operations in taxi phase, trajectories optimisation via the general principle of Trajectory Based Operations (“ TBO ”), optimised approaches targeting and noise reduction. The current ATM environment based on static flight plans is evolving towards TBO in order to improve airport and ATM network performance. Major elements to feed an accurate and reliable 4D trajectory prediction can be provided by the aircraft itself and shared in real time. › › In November 2022, the SESAR 3 Digital Sky Demonstrator project HERON, led by the Company, was kicked-off with European partners including six airlines, eight ANSPs and five airports. This 3-year project is expected to enable reduced flight delays, and therefore fuel burn and CO 2 emissions via enabling Continuous Descent Operations, reducing holdings and undue vectoring. Several months of application with more than 1000 flights collected are expected to demonstrate quick win ATM improvements.

› › In 2023, a European research project GEESE was granted funding from SESAR to continue the work of fello’fly, with the ambition to bring fello’fly into commercial service later this decade. Project aims to further refine the concept and its integration into airline operations by the end of the decade. Geese involves the collaboration of 16 partners and an advisory board of selected industry leaders.

The Company also focuses on the development of fuel saving procedures for airports and ground operations to minimise the use of engine power and auxiliary power units (APU) while the aircraft is on the ground. It is also working on disruptive practices like formation flying. In November 2019, the Company launched the fello’fly project which aims to demonstrate the technical, operational and commercial viability of two aircraft flying closer together for long-haul flights. Through fello’fly, the follower aircraft will retrieve the energy lost by the wake of a leader aircraft by flying in the smooth updraft of the air it creates. This provides lift to the follower aircraft, allowing it to decrease engine thrust and therefore reduce fuel consumption in the range of 5-8% per trip. Further research into wake energy retrieval (WER) and deployment of Concept of Operations in the ATM environment is crucial to implementation in a multi-country environment. The current ATM environment based on static flight plans is evolving towards Trajectory Based Operations (TBO) in order to improve airport and ATM Network performance. Major elements to feed an accurate and reliable 4D trajectory prediction can be provided by the aircraft itself and shared in real time. The results are projected to be reduced flight delays, fuel burn and CO 2 emissions via enabling Continuous Descent Operations, reducing holdings and undue vectoring. Through its subsidiary Navblue, the Company provides services helping its customers to minimise fuel consumption with best operational practices, innovative services and training. The Company organises face-to-face forums and webinars every year with airlines to exchange knowledge on how to improve ground and in-flight operational efficiency and using latest technological solutions. Namely, a “fuel efficiency forum” has been developed with representatives of the ecosystem including airlines, ATM, engine manufacturers, airports and suppliers.

88 Airbus Annual Report

Universal Registration Document 2023