Airbus earnings soar – but fail to rise above analyst expectations
Airbus reported higher underlying third-quarter profit on Wednesday and raised its production targets going forward.
The world’s largest planemaker said it was aiming to return to pre-COVID levels of 10 A350 jets a month in 2026, up from a previous goal of nine a month by end-2025. Other industrial targets, including 720 jet deliveries in 2023, were unchanged.
Adjusted operating earnings came in at €1.01bn (£880m) in the quarter, up 21 per cent, as revenues rose 12 per cent to €14.9bn.
Analysts expected earnings of €1.14bn on revenues of €15.1bn, according to a company-compiled consensus.
Airbus said it was seeing strong demand in commercial aircraft, including a continuing rebound in big jets like the A350, but expected the supply chain to remain “challenging”.
“Demand for our commercial aircraft is very strong with a continuing recovery in the wide-body market,” Guillaume Faury, Airbus’ chief executive officer, said.
“We expect the supply chain to remain challenging as we progress on the production ramp-up. In that context, we maintain our guidance for the full year.”
Production on the company’s main profit-generating programme the Airbus A320 family, is “progressing well” towards a previously announced target of 75 a month in 2026, Airbus said. Industry sources say current production stands in the low 50s.
It reaffirmed plans for a restructuring in its defence and space division, where it reported new charges of €300m on “certain satellite development programmes,” without elaborating. That came after €100m earlier in the year.
Risks remain on costs, reliability and production volumes of the A400M military transporter, Airbus said, with some countries reported to be balking at the size of their original orders.
Airbus’s 350 wide-body aircraft has benefited from a revival in long-haul demand, which initially suffered more than short-haul following the pandemic. Demand for transatlantic routes in particular has soared in recent months.
The two major planemakers, Boeing and Airbus have struggled to meet a wider resurgence in demand for travel amid supply chain snarl-ups in the aircraft manufacturing process.
On Monday, short-haul specialist Ryanair’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary blamed delivery delays at Boeing and Airbus for hiking ticket fares in Europe and constraining airlines’ capacity.
Boeing cut its annual delivery forecast for its iconic 737 Max craft in October amid a production glitch which has hit three quarters of its fleet.