Airbus to stop burning cash, but lockdowns loom
Airbus offered investors a glimmer of hope on Thursday (October 29).
The European aerospace giant said it expected to stop burning through cash in the fourth quarter.
It’s managed to speed up deliveries of new jets to cash-strapped airlines.
Chief Executive Guillaume Faury says the firm has learned a lot about how to adapt to this year’s crisis.
But he also warned that airline traffic was taking longer to recover than expected.
And production could yet face further disruption, with France and Germany - home to key Airbus factories - facing new lockdown measures.
In the third quarter underlying operating profit at the plane maker tumbled by almost a half to about 960 million dollars.
Though that was better than analyst forecasts.
Airbus managed to reduce its stock of undelivered airliners over the period.
For the full year experts predict it will deliver about 500-550 new jets.
That would be down from 863 last year.
Airbus shares fluctuated Thursday, but by lunchtime were down over 3%.
