PARIS: European aircraft manufacturer Airbus on Thursday posted an increase of 28 percent net profit in the first quarter of the year through rising production and deliveries.
The development comes as Airbus’s arch-rival Boeing reported a loss in the same quarter of the year.
Airbus’ net income in the first three months reached $637 million while revenue grew nine percent to $13.7 billion, as the company delivered 142 commercial aircrafts compared with 127 over the same period last year.
Chief executive of Airbus, Guillaume Faury in a statement said the results were delivered against the backdrop of an operating environment that has no sign of improvement. He said that the company was managing bottlenecks actively.
He added Airbus was closely watching the future of Spirit Aerosystems, a US company that manufactures some parts of the planes for Airbus and could be bought by Boeing.
Airbus is expected to deliver 800 commercial planes this year, which is up from 735 last year, but still below the 863 it delivered in 2019 before Covid-19.
The European aircraft giant has an order backlog of 8,626 planes.
Boeing, an American rival of Airbus on Wednesday reported a first-quarter loss of $343 million, showing safety troubles that have slowed deliveries and production.
Airbus said it has a plan to produce 75 A320s a year by 2026 and has already delivered 48 aircraft a month on average last year.
The company is also increasing the production for its A350 widebody aircraft to 12 a month in 2028.
