Despite delivering 125 commercial aircraft in the first quarter, Airbus is warning that the market environment remains uncertain with Covid-19 still ravaging parts of the world.
Speaking as the results for Q1 2021 were released, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said the aircraft manufacturer was continuing to focus on cost and cash containment while also continuing to restructure operations.
He added of the 125 aircraft delivered, there were 9 A220s, 105 from the A320 family, 1 A330 and 10 A350s and the number compares well with the 122 delivered in the same period during 2020.
However, a look at the order book shows how badly the commercial aviation sector has been hit by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Of the total 39 commercial aircraft ordered in Q1 2021, 38 were single-aisle aircraft while the overall number compares poorly with the 356 aircraft ordered in Q1 2020.
Once cancellations are taken into account for the first quarter this year net commercial aircraft orders were -61 compared with 290 the previous year. There are a total of 6,998 aircraft in the order book.
This led to consolidated revenues of €10.5 billion compared to €10.6 billion for the same period in 2020 and Airbus said it is confident it will deliver as many aircraft in 2021 as it did in 2020.
Faury said: “The good Q1 results mainly reflect our commercial aircraft delivery performance, cost and cash containment, progress with the restructuring plan as well as positive contributions from our helicopter and defence and space activities.
“The first quarter shows that the crisis is not yet over for our industry, and that the market remains uncertain.
“We are investing in innovation and in the transformation of our Company to deliver on our long-term ambitions across the portfolio.”
