EADS is forecasting bullish full-year results for 2005 on the back of increased deliveries of Airbus aircraft in the first nine months.
The company has raised its EBIT target to Euros 2.75 billion ($3.25 billion) from an earlier figure of more than €2.6 billion after a rise in deliveries, particularly in the single-aisle category. EBIT for the first nine months of the year rose to €2.1 billion – 41% up on the same period last year. Airbus’s EBIT for the first nine months of the year rose 34% to €1.9 billion despite a “less favourable US dollar impact”, says EADS. Airbus delivered 271 aircraft in the first nine months compared with 224 in the same period a year earlier. Savings from the manufacturer’s Route 06 cost-cutting programme and lower R&D charges also boosted results, with Airbus revenues up 11% at €16 billion for the first nine months.
EADS forecasts deliveries of 370 Airbus aircraft for the full year of 2005, 16% more than last year. Airbus said earlier this year that deliveries will exceed 400 in 2006. Airbus secured 417 gross orders during the nine months, more than double the 189 taken in the same period in 2004.
It is already well ahead of the 370 orders placed during the whole of last year.
EADS forecasts 2005 full-year revenues of more than €33 billion, compared with 31.8 billion in 2004. “Despite the expected rise in US dollar headwind in the third quarter, lower than expected R&D helped to counterbalance,” says analyst Ben Fidler of Deutsche Bank. EADS posted an 8% year-on-year increase in third quarter revenues to €7.43 billion.
HELEN MASSY-BERESFORD/NAPLES
Source: Flight International
