By Mauro Orru
Airbus posted higher revenue and earnings for the third quarter and backed its guidance for the year, sticking to plans to deliver 720 commercial planes and ramping up production of its A350 wide-body aircraft despite lingering supply-chain snags.
The European plane maker had delivered 559 aircraft to customers by the end of October, meaning it will need to send out 161 planes in November and December to hit its annual target. Airbus had originally hoped to achieve 720 deliveries last year but was forced to shelve that goal due to supply-chain woes.
The aviation industry has been grappling for months with supply-chain challenges that have made it harder to procure some spare parts and raw materials.
“Demand for our commercial aircraft is very strong with a continuing recovery in the wide-body market,” Chief Executive Guillaume Faury said. “We expect the supply chain to remain challenging as we progress on the production ramp-up.”
The group said it still expects to produce 75 of its A320 narrow-body aircraft a month in 2026. For its A330 wide-body, Airbus is aiming for four a month in 2024, while production of its bigger A350 model is now expected to reach 10 aircraft a month in 2026, up from a previous target of nine a month.
Airbus had slashed production of its wide-body planes early on in the coronavirus pandemic, when travel restrictions and border closures brought international traffic to a near standstill. Now, airlines are scrambling for planes to expand capacity to meet surging demand for international air travel.
Airbus on Wednesday posted revenue of 14.90 billion euros ($15.94 billion) for the three months to the end of September, up 12% on year.
Net profit jumped 21% to EUR806 million, while adjusted earnings before interest and taxes–Airbus’s preferred measure of profitability–also grew 21% to EUR1.01 billion.
Analysts had expected revenue of EUR15.10 billion on a net profit of EUR837 million and adjusted earnings of EUR1.14 billion, according to a company-provided consensus based on estimates from 22 analysts.
For the year, Airbus continues to expect adjusted earnings of around EUR6 billion. Free cash flow before mergers and acquisitions and customer financing–a closely watched metric by analysts and investors–should come in at around EUR3 billion.
Write to Mauro Orru at [email protected]
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