Airbus Defense and Space Reports Q3 Revenue Decline, but Increased Orders for 2020

Photo: Airbus

Airbus released its Third Quarter (Q3) results on Oct. 29, reporting a revenue decrease of 27%, mainly driven by lower deliveries at Airbus and lower revenues at Airbus Defence and Space. Consolidated revenue for the full company in Q3 was 11.2 billion euros ($13 billion) and net loss was 767 million euros ($894 million).   

For the Airbus Defence and Space segment, revenue was down 11% in the quarter from Q3 2019, at 2.4 billion euros ($2.8 billion). 

But for the nine months that ended September 30 — order intake for Airbus Defence and Space saw a large increase of 35% from the same time period last year. Net order intake is 8.2 billion euros ($9.6 billion), with an additional A330 MRTT tanker aircraft and contract wins in telecommunications satellites in the U.K. and Middle East in the third quarter. In August, Yahsat selected Airbus to build Thuraya 4-NGS, the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) next-generation L-band telecommunications satellite. 

For the nine month period, revenues for Defence and Space were 6.9 billion euros ($8 billion), down 10% from the nine month period in 2019. Airbus attributed the revenue to lower volume in space and A400M as well as the impact of COVID-19 on business planning. 

Airbus’ Full-Year 2020 guidance was withdrawn in March and Airbus did not issue new guidance on commercial aircraft deliveries or EBIT because of the continued impact of the pandemic and associated risks. 

“After nine months of 2020 we now see the progress made on adapting our business to the new COVID-19 market environment. Despite the slower air travel recovery than anticipated, we converged commercial aircraft production and deliveries in the third quarter and we stopped cash consumption in line with our ambition,” Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury commented in a release. “Furthermore, the restructuring provision booked shows our discussions with social partners and stakeholders have advanced well. Our ability to stabilise the cash flow in the quarter gives us confidence to issue a free cash flow guidance for the fourth quarter.”