Airbus reinstates dividend as record profit boosts cash

Handovers will increase to 720 aircraft this year from 2021’s 611, Airbus said in a statement. Chief executive officer Guillaume Faury has targetted a ramp-up in production of the key A320-series single-aisle jet to a rate of 65 per month by mid-2023.(Airbus and Boeing aircraft - Filepic)

LONDON: Airbus SE has posted a record net income of �4.2bil (US$4.66bil or RM19.5bil) for 2021 and set plans to reinstate a dividend, in a decisive move to leave the worst of the two-year Covid-19 pandemic behind.

A year-end delivery push helped the company retain the crown of world’s biggest planemaker for the third year in a row.