Airbus profits take off in 2014

Company’s results jump 59% on record deliveries and expects trend to continue in 2015

Airbus Group said yesterday its net profit soared 59 per cent in 2014 thanks to record deliveries of passenger jets and that it expects revenue and operating profits to climb this year.

The company, best known for its passenger jets, chalked up a net profit of €2.34 billion (Dh9.6 billion, $2.6 billion), which would have been even better had it not been for a provision of €551 million for delays to its A400M military transport plane.

That write-down was mostly compensated for however with an exceptional gain of €383 million due its sale of an 8 per cent stake in Dassault Aviation, as well as its holdings in Finnish defence company Patria.

Operating profits climbed 54 per cent to €4 billion, and it said this measure of earnings does not include exceptional items and that it expects a slight increase in 2015.

Sales, which are booked when aircraft are delivered, rose by 5 per cent to €60.7 billion to what Airbus said was a record level, even though orders slumped by 23 per cent to €166.4 billion.

Airbus’ order book nevertheless increased by 26 per cent to stand at €857.5 billion at the end of last year.

“We achieved a significant improvement in profitability and cash generation in 2014 thanks to a record order book and strong operational performance in most areas,” chief executive Tom Enders said in a statement.

Net orders

“We delivered more commercial aircraft than ever before, including the first A350, and our net orders were, once again, more than twice the number of deliveries,” he added. The company said it expects deliveries to increase slightly this year and the order book to grow further.

Enders said Airbus was stepping up production of the A320 range of single-aisle mediumrange passenger jets. However he said Airbus plans to temporarily slow production of the wide-body long-haul A330 in 2016, but scale up manufacturing of the A350 which it began delivering last year.