Airbus Group has reported strong nine-month results and confirmed its 2015 guidance.
“We again increased revenues, profitability and cash generation due to a good operational performance. We’re on track to deliver on our full year guidance,” said Tom Enders, Airbus Group Chief Executive Officer. “The healthy commercial aircraft market, robustness of our backlog and supply chain capability allows us to raise the single-aisle production rate to 60 a month in mid-2019. We are strongly focused on programme execution given our key operational challenges with the A350 and A400M production ramp-ups and A320neo. Based on operational progress, divestments materialised and the expected cash position this year, the Board has decided to launch a € 1 billion share buyback which will begin immediately and be completed by the end of June 2016.”
Group order intake in the first nine months of 2015 rose 42 percent to €112 billion compared to €79bn in 2014, with the order book value reaching €967 billion as of 30 September 2015. Airbus received 815 net commercial aircraft orders, compared to 791 net orders in the year-ago period.
Group revenues increased six percent to € 43.0 billion (9m 2014: € 40.5 billion), reflecting the strengthening U.S. dollar and a favourable mix at Airbus. Revenues at Commercial Aircraft rose eight percent with 446 aircraft delivered, compared to 443 units in 2014.
Group EBIT before one-off – an indicator capturing the underlying business margin by excluding material non-recurring charges or profits caused by movements in provisions related to programmes and restructurings or foreign exchange impacts – rose eight percent to €2.804bn, compared to €2.59bn.
Commercial Aircraft’s EBIT before one-off rose 25 percent to €2.226bn, driven by operational improvement and reflects some favourable cost phasing, including research & development (R&D) and A350 support costs. Group self-financed R&D expenses decreased to €2.287bn.