Airbus says it has “made progress” adapting its business after suffering huge financial losses caused by Covid-19.
In a trading update on Thursday, October 29, the plane maker said global air travel recovery had been slower than expected, but cash containment remained “on track”.
For the nine months to September 30, revenues at the company fell to €30.2billion (£27.2billion) - down from €46.2billion for the same period in 2019.
The aerospace giant lost €2.68billion over the first nine months of the year, while for the same period in 2019 it made a €2.18billion profit.
Airbus, which announced a series of redundancies earlier in the year, including the reduction of around 1,700 海角视频 roles, said a “difficult market environment” had impacted the commercial aircraft business.
It said there had been around 40 per cent fewer deliveries year-on-year, with a total of 341 commercial aircraft delivered in the last nine months - down from 571 in 2019.
At the end of September, the number of commercial aircraft that could not be delivered due to Covid-19 had reduced to around 135, it said.
“After nine months of 2020 we now see the progress made on adapting our business to the new Covid-19 market environment,” said Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury.
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“Despite the slower air travel recovery than anticipated, we converged commercial aircraft production and deliveries in the third quarter and we stopped cash consumption in line with our ambition.
“Furthermore, the restructuring provision booked shows our discussions with social partners and stakeholders have advanced well.
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“Our ability to stabilise the cash flow in the quarter gives us confidence to issue a free cash flow guidance for the fourth quarter.”
Airbus’s full-year 2020 guidance was withdrawn in March.
The company said it would break even at the free cash flow level in quarter four of 2020 if there was no further disruptions to the world economy and air traffic.