Airbus 2017 profits were “better than expected” according to financial results published today.
The results for the full financial year show the company had revenues totalling €67bn giving profits of €4.3bn, up from €3.6bn in 2016. Airbus Chief Executive, Tom Enders, said the company had “overachieved on all our 2017 KPIs thanks to a very good operational performance, especially in the last quarter”
Whilst revenues are stable, it wasn’t all good news as it emerged that the company had written off another €1.3bn of debt on its troubled Airbus A400M transport plane. Total losses on the project now exceed €8bn.
The A400M has been plagued with delays and the project suffered a serious setback when in 2015 a test aircraft crashed in Spain killing four crew members.
Speaking about the A400M, Mr Enders said: “On A400M, we made progress on the industrial and capabilities front and agreed a re-baselining with government customers which will significantly reduce the remaining programme risks. This is reflected in a substantial one-off charge.”
Share prices in Airbus have been sliding down recently. The companies commercial aircraft division has been dogged by delays due to problems with the new engines for its Airbus A320neo family of single-aisle airliners, it’s best selling product.
Despite ongoing engine issues, Airbus is continuing to ramp up production of the A320neo family and said it planned to deliver 800 aircraft in 2018 if engine manufacturers met their commitments.
Many components such as Wings and Landing Gear, for Airbus airlines are made at the key Airbus UK sites at Broughton, North Wales and Filton, Bristol.
Airbus’ A380 project almost had its life-support turned off last year also when an expected order from Emirates didn’t materialise at the Dubai Air Show. But just days after outgoing sales chief John Leahy said that no deal would kill the A380, Emirates signed a deal securing its future for another 10 years.
If Airbus achieves its delivery targets in 2018 then its profits should increase by around 20%. Shares in the company climbed 10% on the back of today’s results.
