Bribery probe and military aircraft unit send Airbus to €1.36bn loss
Global aerospace giant Airbus has swung to €1.36bn loss for 2019, compared to a profit of just over €3bn for the year before.
The huge loss is down to a provision for a $4bn settlement of a bribery case as well as a €1.2bn charge against its military aircraft programme.
The group has however met other targets and share prices, after an initial drop, are stable at EUR 137.14.
Commercial aircraft sold particularly well, with net orders increasing to 768 aircraft, from 747 in 2018.
Boss Guilaume Faury said: “We achieved a great deal in 2019.
“We delivered a strong underlying financial performance driven mainly by our commercial aircraft deliveries.”
By the end of 2019, the plane maker’s consolidated order book was valued at €471bn, up from €460bn at the close of 2018.
Consolidated revenues increased to €70.5bn, from €63.7bn in 2018 and consolidated EBIT adjusted increased to €6.94bn from the 2018 figure of €5.8bn.
The helicopter and defence divisions also enjoyed a strong 2019.
Looking ahead to 2020, Airbus aims to deliver 880 commercial aircraft resulting in an EBIT adjusted of approximately €7.5bn.
This is on the assumption current air travel trends continue and the current tariff regime remains.
This assumes no major disruption, including the coronavirus.
These come on the day that Airbus takes the remaining shares in the A220 airliner programme from Bombardier.
In comparison, rival plane maker Boeing continues to face difficulties with the continued 737MAX grounding.