Airbus reports orders down, profits up

Airbus Group has airplane orders slumped in the first quarter, but profits rose and it hopes to put its A350 long-range jet into service by the end of the year.

Boeing’s chief rival said in a statement today that it took in 103 orders in the quarter for a total of €21.1bn. That is down from 410 orders in the first quarter of 2013.

Chief executive Tom Enders said Airbus isn’t changing its 2014 outlook, which predicts a stable year compared with 2013. But he said the company faces “many challenges” and is focusing on “improvement and restructuring plans”.

The group, formerly known as EADS, saw overall sales up 5% to 12.6bn in the quarter. Profits nearly doubled to €439m in the quarter.