TOULOUSE, France – Airbus says its profits rose last year on the back of record deliveries of its civilian jetliners and forecast further growth this year.
The European aerospace company, known until this year as EADS, said Wednesday that its net profit rose 22 percent to 1.47 billion euros ($2 billion) in 2013, up from 1.2 billion euros the previous year.
Airbus, which competes fiercely with Boeing Co. of the U.S. in the multi-billion-dollar market for large civilian aircraft, forecast jet deliveries to remain at about the same level this year as last year when it sold 626 aircraft.
It also forecast orders to remain higher than deliveries. Last year Airbus took in a record 1,619 new orders.
In a statement, Airbus also said it will ramp up production of its single-aisle jets to 46 a month by 2016, from 42 now.
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