Airbus Group profits in line, raises A330 output goal

[LONDON] Airbus Group posted 2015 profit in line with forecasts on Wednesday and announced plans to reverse part of a planned production cut of A330 aircraft due to stronger-than-expected demand.

Europe's largest aerospace group said operating earnings before one-off items, a measure of underlying performance, rose 2 per cent to 4.132 billion euros (S$6.4 billion) as revenue gained 6 per cent to 64.450 billion.

Analysts were on average predicting full-year core operating income of 4.114 billion euros on revenue of 64.736 billion, according to a Reuters poll.

Airbus said it would produce seven A330 aircraft a month from 2017. A year ago, it announced plans to cut output of the wide-body jet to six a month from the first quarter of 2016, compared with its plan at the time to produce nine a month.

REUTERS