It said net profits reached 1.197 billion euros ($1.34 billion), up from 496 million euros in the same six-month period last year.

"The half-year financial performance mainly reflects the ramp-up in production of A320 Family aircraft and transition to the more efficient NEO version, as well as further progress on the A350 financial performance," Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury was quoted as saying in a statement.

"We continue to see good demand for our competitive product portfolio, including the new A321XLR, as shown by the strong market endorsement at June's Le Bourget airshow."

However, he said that the second half of the year "in terms of deliveries and in particular free cash flow continues to be challenging".

The group delivered a total of 389 commercial aircraft during the six months, up from 303 in the same period in 2018, including 21 A220s, 294 aircraft of the A320 family, 234 of which were the NEO version, 17 A330w, 53 A350s and four A380s.

It aims to make between 880 and 890 deliveries during the whole of 2019.