(Boursier.com) — Airbus climbs 3% to 95 euros in the morning as the aeronautics giant organizes an investor day in Toulouse. The group first lets once again hear that it could launch an enlarged version of its A220 while specifying that it would not take a hasty decision. An elongated version of the device will make sense, but “we don’t want to be right too soon”, declared Guillaume Faury, the general manager of the European aircraft manufacturer.
While more than 223 aircraft are already in service, Airbus reaffirms that it is aiming for the break-even point for its A220 program (inherited from Bombardier) by 2025. The A350 will soon reach a break-even point at a production rate less higher than initially expected, according to the leader.
Airbus is also taking advantage of this presentation to reiterate its target of 700 deliveries this year. The aerospace giant will return to its 2019 delivery levels in 2024 but with a higher proportion of A220s and a lower proportion of widebody aircraft, according to Dominik Asam, Airbus chief financial officer.
On the production side, Airbus continues to aim for production of 75 single-aisle aircraft per month by 2025, after pushing back an intermediate target of 65 aircraft initially set for the summer of 2023 from the end of July to the beginning of 2024. Management hopes to achieve this. to a production level of a thousand devices per year by the middle of the decade.
On the investor side, Dominik Asam says he is committed to increasing shareholder return as the company aims to pay dividends at the upper end of its target range. “Once we reach the net cash target of €10 billion, assuming no significant M&A deals, we will discuss other ways to return money”, emphasizes Dominik Asam, while specifying that the dividend will remain the preferred means of returning cash in the future. “A share buyback is one of the instruments available, but we are not there yet.”
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