Planemaker Airbus upholds full-year targets as quarterly profit rises
Adjusted operating profit rises 39%
Revenues rise 5%
Board to propose third term for CEO Guillaume Faury
CEO says Airbus facing supply-chain, geopolitical challenges
Airbus sticks to 2024 commercial delivery target of about 770 jets
Company maintains 2024 financial targets
Adds CEO comments to reporters, paragraphs 6, 9, 13
By Tim Hepher
PARIS, Oct 30 (Reuters) -Airbus AIR.PA maintained its full-year targets as it posted higher-than-expected third-quarter core profit and revenues on Wednesday, and said it planned to extend its CEO's time at the helm.
The world's largest planemaker said its widely-watched adjusted operating profit rose 39% to 1.407 billion euros ($1.53 billion) in the quarter as revenues rose 5% to 15.689 billion.
Analysts were on average expecting third-quarter operating profit of 1.2 billion euros on revenues of 15.302 billion, according to a company-compiled consensus.
Demand for profitable models and a lack of charges during the quarter for its troubled space business lifted Airbus' results.
The company said its board would propose to shareholders a third term for CEO Guillaume Faury when his current three-year mandate expires in 2025.
It also said it had chosen MTU Aero Engines MTXGn.DE CEO Lars Wagner, who had a previous stint at Airbus, to be the designated successor to planemaking head Christian Scherer.
"I consider Lars Wagner one of the strongest executives in the industry," Faury said in a call with journalists, adding that the change is not a negative reflection on Scherer.
Faury said Airbus continued to face complex supply-chain and geopolitical challenges but maintained its commercial delivery target of about 770 jets in 2024, despite previously reported deliveries that missed market expectations in the first nine months of the year.
"We remain focused on our priorities, including ramping up commercial aircraft deliveries and transforming our Defence and Space division," he said in a statement.
In the call with journalists, Faury said Airbus was closely monitoring the potential for trade tensions as Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump has proposed sweeping tariffs on imports.
Airbus took no new charges for its satellites business after 1.5 billion euros of charges in recent quarters but it has indicated that more could follow as it digs further into losses in satellites, particularly for its troubled OneSat project.
Airbus reaffirmed production goals but said it was managing a specific supply-chain problem that could affect the ramp-up trajectory for the A350 in 2025, without elaborating.
Reuters reported this month that Airbus was facing concerns over parts supplies from Spirit AeroSystems SPR.N, raising the prospect of delays in deliveries of some jets including the long-haul A350 next year.
Faury said Spirit's industrial output is a "pacing element," an industry term that means it has a decisive role in Airbus' production of A350 aircraft.
Airbus earlier announced on Wednesday it had delivered the first long-range single-aisle A321XLR jet to Spain's Iberia ICAG.L and secured an order for 60 jets from Saudi startup Riyadh Air.
($1 = 0.9205 euros)
Reporting by Tim Hepher, editing by Tassilo Hummel, Richard Lough and Rod Nickel
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