Eads suffers while Rolls Royce soars

By ROBERT LEA
Updated:

 

The aerospace industry was telling two different stories today with Eads, the Airbus and military aircraft giant, reporting a plunge in profits while British aeroengines maker Rolls-Royce delivered another set of soaraway earnings and orders.

The crisis at Airbus, which has seen its ambitious A380 555-seater commercial jet delayed by two years and resulted in a revolving door for the firm's top executives, was today put into numbers as parent group Eads reported underlying profits of e367m (£249m) in the first six months of 2007 against e1.65bn in the first half of last year.

The company also reported a €500m fall in revenues to €18.5bn.

'Airbus's financial performance still shows the signs of well-known challenges,î said Eads' joint German and French chief executives Tom Enders and Louis Gallois. 'Ultimately, profitability is the best measure of success.î

Rolls-Royce's profits rose 17% to £380m on sales up 10% at £3.6m in the first half of the year as the order book surged by more than a third to £35bn.

Chief executive Sir John Rose said the secret of Rolls' success is that more than than half its sales now come in the after-market, servicing and maintaining previously sold engines.

The weakness of the dollar took £40m off profits in a business which is denominated globally in the US currency, he said.

Recent orders include building a new engine for business-jet maker Dassault of France and the engine for the latest version of Airbus's other new aircraft, the A350.

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