Buoyed by rising deliveries of Airbus commercial jets, higher prices and lower losses on its flagship A380 superjumbo program, European aerospace giant European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. NV (EAD.FR) Friday raised its full-year outlook as it reported a sharp improvement in its earnings in the second quarter of the year. Still, the company warned that delivery of its wide-bodied A350 XWB jets would be delayed by a further three months into the second half of 2014 at an additional cost of 124 million euros. A further 23 million euros of charges were booked to cover the cost of fixing cracks in the wings of its A380, on top of the 158 million euros booked in the first quarter. "Our key programmes, particularly at Airbus, continue to command our utmost attention," said Chief Executive Thomas Enders, the former head of Airbus who took over as EADS chief executive from Louis Gallois on June 1. EADS, which makes commercial and military aircraft and has defense, security and space businesses, reported a net profit of 461 million euros for the three months through June, compared with 121 million euros a year earlier, as revenue rose 12% to 13.53 billion euros. The company's closely-watched earnings before interest and taxes, excluding one-off items, was 735 million euros from 371 million euros a year earlier, above an average forecast of 596 million euros among eight analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires. Order intake in the first six months was 28.2 billion euros, down from 58.1 billion euros booked in the same period last year. Orders stood at 551.7 billion euros at the end of June, up from 541 billion at the end of 2011. The company raised its full-year profit guidance, saying it now expects its pre-items Ebit to come in at around 2.7 billion euros for the full year, up from 2.5 billion euros and . EADS' strong first-half performance mirrors that of U.S. rival Boeing Co. (BA), which earlier this week raised its full-year guidance, thanks to higher international defense and commercial jetliner sales. Another U.S. rival in the defense sector, Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT), also boosted its full-year earnings guidance despite the expectation of large Pentagon budget cuts. Write to Jan Hromadko at jan.hromadko@dowjones.com Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
