Airbus 2021 income up 4% on higher commercial aircraft deliveries

A total of 611 commercial aircraft were delivered (2020: 566 aircraft) including 50 A220s, 483 A320 family, 18 A330s, 55 A350s and 5 A380s, according to an official statement.

"2021 was a year of transition, where our attention shifted from navigating the pandemic towards recovery and growth," says Guillaume Faury, Chief Executive Officer, Airbus. "The strong financials reflect the higher number of commercial aircraft deliveries, the good performance of our Helicopters and Defence and Space businesses as well as our efforts on cost containment and competitiveness. Record net income and our efforts to strengthen the net cash position underpin our proposal to reintroduce dividend payments going forward."

Gross commercial aircraft orders totalled 771 (2020: 383 aircraft) with net orders of 507 aircraft after cancellations (2020: 268 aircraft) including the first A350 freighter orders.

The order backlog was 7,082 commercial aircraft on December31, 2021 (end 2020: 7,184 aircraft).

Consolidated adjusted EBIT nearly tripled to €4.9 billion ($5.6 billion). Consolidated net income was €4.2 billion ($4.8 billion) compared to 2020 net loss of €-1.1 billion ($1.3 billion)

As the basis for its 2022 guidance, "the company assumes no further disruptions to the world economy, air traffic, the company's internal operations, and its ability to deliver products and services."

Before M&A, the company hopes to achieve 720 commercial aircraft deliveries (increase of 18 percent), and adjusted EBIT of €5.5 billion ($6.27 billion - an increase of 12 percent.