Airbus raises profit forecast again
The European aircraft manufacturer Airbus is getting out of the corona crisis even faster than expected. The Franco-German company raised its earnings expectations for the second time in three months on Thursday and now expects adjusted operating profit (EBIT) of around 4.5 billion euros for 2021, 500 million more than before. After the first nine months there is already an operating profit of almost 3.4 billion euros; A year ago, Airbus was still in the red with 125 million euros. The bottom line is a net profit of 2.6 (previous year: minus 2.7) billion euros.
Sales rose from January to September by 17 percent to 35.2 billion euros, and in the core commercial aircraft business by as much as 21 percent. In the first nine months, Airbus delivered 424 (previous year: 341) machines, and by the end of the year it should be 600, as planned. However, the number of newly ordered aircraft – adjusted for cancellations – fell to 133 from 300. Airbus confirmed its plans to expand production of the short-haul A320 series to 65 machines per month. However, we are now talking about summer 2023. So far, Airbus had spoken of 64 aircraft by the second quarter of 2023. The project is controversial among suppliers.