Airbus announced a hike in jetliner production on Wednesday, echoing plans by arch-rival Boeing as they battle to meet record demand for more fuel-efficient planes. The news came as Europe's largest aerospace group, previously known as EADS, unveiled higher 2013 profits, but also cautious forecasts for this year and fresh charges for its newest A350 model.
Airbus said it would raise output of its A320 family of small jets to 46 aircraft a month by the second quarter of 2016 from 42 now. Boeing's rival jet aims to hit 47 a month by 2017. The increase means Airbus will be producing an A320 family jet, worth around $100 million at list prices, every seven working hours.
Airbus has said it plans to start delivering jets from Mobile, Alabama from 2016, rising eventually to four a month. Those plans had not previously been included in Airbus's main production target. "Mobile is the next place where we will ramp up and we will start producing aircraft there in 2015, first deliveries should happen in 2016. Everything is according to plan and we are training our first American colleagues in Hamburg," Airbus Group chief executive Tom Enders told Reuters.
For 2014, Airbus Group forecast flat revenues and "moderate" growth in operating margin, which it still expects to reach 7-8 percent in 2015 compared with 6 percent in 2013. Airbus Group's widely watched operating profit before one-off items rose 21 percent to 3.6 billion euros ($4.9 billion) in 2013, better than expectations for 3.52 billion in a Reuters poll. Revenue rose 5 percent to 59.3 billion. Net profit also rose 22 percent to 1.5 billion euros after charges of 434 million related to higher costs on its newest widebody jet, the A350, and 292 million driven mainly by restructuring of defence and space activities.
Comments
Comments are closed.