Airbus looks back on surprisingly strong summer business.

As the European aircraft manufacturer announced on Thursday, sales in the first nine months of this year were around 35 billion euros - 17 percent more than in the first nine months of the previous year.

Adjusted operating profit reached just under 3.4 billion euros in this period.

After the outbreak of the corona pandemic, Airbus slipped into the red last year.

Niklas Záboji

Business correspondent in Paris

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The company said it was benefiting from the recovery in global aviation. The number of commercial aircraft delivered was 424 (previous year: 341). Around 80 percent of this is accounted for by the A320 Family. Airbus has sold 194 helicopters so far this year (previous year: 169). Business with helicopters belonging to the Super Puma family was particularly good. With a plus of 14 percent, sales growth in the helicopter segment was, however, below the plus of 23 percent in the core business with commercial aircraft. In the armaments segment Airbus Defense and Space, sales stagnated compared to the previous year. Four A400M military transporters have been delivered so far this year.

The business figures fell better than analysts had expected. Airbus boss Guillaume Faury took it as an opportunity to raise the profit forecast again; he had already corrected it upwards in the summer. After the last 4 billion euros, the operating profit before interest and taxes adjusted for special effects should now amount to 4.5 billion euros at the end of the year. For commercial aircraft, Airbus is aiming for sales of around 600 by the end of the year.

From a group perspective, the “efforts to keep costs down and be competitive” are bearing fruit.

Faury does not expect aviation to collapse again as it did last year.

The signs in the industry are basically pointing to recovery.

The Airbus boss told journalists on Thursday morning that the material bottlenecks, especially in the case of semiconductors, are not directly affected in aircraft production, at most when it comes to the internal procurement of laptops, for example.

The trend is already pointing downwards again

But looking back at the numbers before the pandemic makes it clear that Airbus has a long way to go to recover. The aircraft manufacturer achieved around 46 billion euros in sales in the first nine months of the pre-Corona year 2019, almost a third more than in the first nine months of this year. The share price is currently quoted at around 110 euros. From the slump in spring 2020 to less than 50 euros, it has recovered somewhat. The 140 euros before the Corona crash are still far from being reached. Eight out of 15 analysts polled by Bloomberg currently recommend buying Airbus shares, six "hold", one advises selling.

Everywhere in the aviation industry in Europe there can be no talk of “normality”.

Even if significantly more people got on the plane in the summer than in 2020, it is still significantly fewer than before the pandemic.

French aviation officials only issued a warning signal earlier this week.

The FNAM association calculated that the number of passengers in France this year was only 35 percent of the number of the pre-Corona year 2019.

In addition, the trend is already pointing slightly downwards: After 57 percent in August, it was only 52 percent in September in a two-year comparison.

There is great uncertainty, and high energy prices are also threatening business.

The FNAM President Alain Battisti warned against a "descent into hell".