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Airbus profits slide as deliveries drop / Photo: © AFP/File
Airbus profits slide as deliveries drop
Airbus said Tuesday its first-quarter profit fell as it delivered fewer planes to customers, falling behind rival Boeing for the first time in years.
The drop in deliveries to 114 in the first quarter, compared to 143 for Boeing, was primarily due to a shortage of Pratt & Whitney engines.
Net profit slumped 26 percent from the same quarter last year to 586 million euros ($686 million), with revenues sliding seven percent to 12.65 billion euros.
The first quarter results "reflect the lower level of commercial aircraft deliveries", said Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury.
"In commercial aircraft, we continue to ramp up and produce as per our plan while navigating the shortage of Pratt & Whitney engines," he added.
Investors and analysts follow delivery figures closely as Airbus and Boeing receive the bulk of the payment when they hand over aircraft to buyers.
Airbus said the availability of Pratt & Whitney engines "remains the key pacer of the ramp-up trajectory" for its top-selling mid-range A320 family of single-aisle aircraft.
The company maintained the target of 70 to 75 A320 family aircraft per month through 2025.
It also kept its 2026 target of 870 aircraft, which would beat its record year in 2019 of delivering 863 planes to customers.
Net orders of 398 aircraft during the quarter took its order book to 9,037, a backlog of nearly 10 years of production at current rates.
A. Madsen--BTZ
