Amsterdam: Airbus SE reported Half-Year (H1) 2019 consolidated financial results and maintained its guidance for the full-year. Consolidated revenues increased to € 30.9 billion (H1 2018: € 25.0 billion), mainly reflecting higher commercial aircraft deliveries and favourable foreign exchange.
At Airbus, a total of 389 commercial aircraft were delivered (H1 2018: 303 aircraft), comprising 21 A220s, 294 A320 Family, 17 A330s, 53 A350s and 4 A380s. Airbus Helicopters delivered 143 units (H1 2018: 141 units) with stable revenues driven by programme phasing compensated by growth in services. Higher revenues at Airbus Defence and Space were supported by Military Aircraft activities.
“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,” said Airbus Chief Executive Officer Guillaume Faury. “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. Our operational focus is mainly on the A320neo Family ramp-up. The second half of the year in terms of deliveries and in particular free cash flow continues to be challenging. In defence and space, we signed the important contract amendment for the A400M programme.”
Gross commercial aircraft orders totalled 213 (H1 2018: 261 aircraft) with net orders of 88 aircraft (H1 2018: 206 aircraft). The order book stood at 7,276 commercial aircraft as of 30 June 2019. Net helicopter orders of 123 units (H1 2018: 143 units) included 23 NH90s for Spain and 11 H145s in the second quarter. Airbus Defence and Space’s order intake by value totalled € 4.2 billion, with second-quarter bookings including the A400M Global Support Step 2 contract with OCCAR and next-generation geostationary Ka-band communications satellites.
Outlook
As the basis for its 2019 guidance, the Company expects the world economy and air traffic to grow in line with prevailing independent forecasts, which assume no major disruptions.
The 2019 earnings and Free Cash Flow guidance is before M&A and the company targets 880 to 890 commercial aircraft deliveries in 2019 on the basis of an increase in EBIT Adjusted of approximately +15% compared to 2018 and FCF before M&A and Customer Financing of approximately € 4 billion.