Leonardo’s new Aeronautics Division established
May 7, 2025
Leonardo has formally established its new Aeronautics Division, combining the group’s aerostructures and aircraft division, with Stefano Bortoli appointed managing director.
“The creation of the Aeronautics Division aims to strengthen Leonardo’s competitive positioning in the aeronautics sector, both in the military and civil domains, in line with the development path outlined in Leonardo’s industrial plan launched in March 2024,” explained the company.
The primary objective of the unit will be to accelerate Leonardo’s work on aerostructures, fixed-wing aircraft and unmanned aerial systems. Comprising over 11,000 employees, Leonardo says it will “drive the development of enabling technologies to support the next generation of multi-domain aeronautical systems”.
Leonardo’s four-year industrial plan includes three core pillars, of which one is the consolidation of its “core businesses, in particular Aircraft, Helicopters and Electronics,” wrote the company in December 2024. The plain aims to provide double-digit profitability in 2026, “confirming [an] Aerostructures recovery,” with the standlone unit having suffered recurring losses. In 2024, “difficulties exogenous to the division [continued] to impact the growth of the Boeing 787 progrmme,” although a “gradual overcoming of the difficulties experienced at all levels of the supply chain” helped bolster annual revenues by 17.3%. Nevertheless, aerostructures’ earnings before income and tax for the full year 2024 stood at -$187million.
