Airbus reported a third quarter net loss of 767 million euros (US$899.5 million) compared to profit of 989 million euros in the same period a year ago. Loss per share was 0.98 euros compared to profit of 1.27 euros. Consolidated EBIT adjusted was 820 million euros, a decline of 49 percent year-on-year. The company said its third quarter EBIT adjusted mainly reflects lower commercial aircraft deliveries and lower activities in the space business.
Third quarter revenues were 11.21 billion euros, compared to 15.30 billion euros, last year. The company said its third revenues decreased by 27 percent, mainly driven by lower deliveries at Airbus and lower revenues at Airbus Defence and Space.
For the nine month period, EBIT adjusted was negative at 125 million euros compared to EBIT adjusted of 4.13 billion euros, last year. Consolidated revenues decreased to 30.2 billion euros from 46.2 billion euros.
Airbus reported free cash flow before mergers and acquisitions and customer financing of EUR600 million in its third quarter. The Toulouse, France-based company said it still won’t issue a new Ebit or delivery guidance for the year due to the continued impact of the Covid-19 crisis on its activities. However, Airbus targets at least breakeven free cash flow before M&A and customer financing in its fourth quarter, reckoning no further disruption will hit its business during the period.
“After nine months of 2020 we now see the progress made on adapting our business to the new COVID-19 market environment. 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,” said Airbus Chief Executive Officer Guillaume Faury. “Furthermore, the restructuring provision booked shows our discussions with social partners and stakeholders have advanced well. Our ability to stabilise the cash flow in the quarter gives us confidence to issue a free cash flow guidance for the fourth quarter.”
Net commercial aircraft orders totalled 300 with the order backlog comprising 7,441 commercial aircraft as of 30 September 2020. Airbus Helicopters booked 143 net orders including eight H160s and 1 H215 during the third quarter. Airbus Defence and Space’s order intake increased to 8.2 billion euros with the third quarter including an additional A330 MRTT as well as contract wins in telecommunications satellites.
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