Paris (France) (AFP) – Spared, even stimulated by the war in the Middle East, the French aerospace sector is doing well and plans 20,000 recruitments this year, without excluding part of filling its deficit of engineers by turning to the automobile industry which is making redundancies.

Published on: 06/05/2026 - 17:29

With a turnover of 85.6 billion euros in 2025, up 12% compared to 2024, the sector employs 230,500 people and created 7,000 net jobs last year, Gifas (French Aerospace Industries Group) announced during a press conference on Wednesday.

It is targeting 20,000 recruitments in 2026 against a backdrop of “a real shortage of engineers” in France, underlined Clémentine Gallet, president of the Gifas Aero-SME Committee. “We train 40,000 per year and we would need almost twice as many,” she stressed.

Engineers welcome

An encouraging situation for young women who "tend to leave the beautiful mathematics sector" and for engineers affected by social plans in the automobile industry.

“100% of girls who graduate from science courses are taken into businesses, compared to perhaps a little fewer boys. So girls are taken every time, we have to send them into aeronautics!”, underlined Clémentine Gallet.

At a time when partnerships are being established in France between drone manufacturers and the automobile industry, another Gifas manager, Hélène Moreau-Leroy, sees "the glass half full" while more than 10,000 layoffs have been announced in Europe over the past two years in the automobile industry.

The transition of automotive engineers to aeronautics "is entirely possible", "these are bridges that we know how to create", underlines Ms. Moreau-Leroy, new president of the Group of aeronautical, defense and space equipment manufacturers with Gifas.

While high schools are starting to offer a drone option for the professional baccalaureate, Gifas is not currently considering "a major drone recruitment plan", underlines Clémentine Gallet.

But the skills sought by the sector are similar: “we are highly qualified engineers, IT and artificial intelligence,” she adds.

“Indirect opportunity”

If defense only represents a quarter of Gifas' activities, military orders are increasingly important, underlined the president of the Group Olivier Andriès.

Faced with the war in the Middle East, the French aerospace industry could accelerate its military sales in Europe due to the disengagement of the United States from its European customers, he estimated.

“There is an indirect opportunity” for the “European preference” in defense to be implemented, declared Olivier Andriès.

Since the start of the Gulf War, certain countries in Northern and Eastern Europe, particularly the Baltic countries, "have received messages from the United States that they would be 'deprioritized'", he assured.

The arguments according to which American equipment "is available immediately" or "more efficient than European ones" can "be defeated", he continued.

He cited the example of the Thales SAMP/T anti-aircraft defense system associated with the Aster missiles, recently chosen by the Danes against the American Patriots and of which the Europeans have "nothing to be ashamed of".

For the civil branch, "there is no impact to date", declared Mr. Andriès, who is also the general director of the engine manufacturer Safran. “There has been no request from any airline to postpone aircraft deliveries (...) For several years, the airline sector has been rather short of aircraft.”

Gulf companies have resumed between 50 to 70% of their flights, while the share of low-cost companies which have reduced their flight schedule due to the increase in the price of kerosene is "relatively small", he continued.

The impact of the war on the sector will, however, depend on the duration of the crisis.

“If the crisis were to end in the coming weeks, it would be a shock from which the sector would recover fairly quickly. But if the crisis were to last longer, we are in another scenario,” he concluded.

© 2026 AFP

The content you are trying to access does not exist or is no longer available.