LONDON – Airbus laid out medium-term targets including a near doubling of profits and stronger shareholder returns on July 21, signalling confidence in its ability to ramp up production as a bruised aerospace sector turns the corner on supply disruption.The world’s largest civil planemaker said it was targeting a core profit of €12 billion (S$17.6 billion) to €13 billion in 2029, and announced a €5 billion share buyback programme.The goal represents a sharp rise from €7.13 billion of adjusted earnings before interest and taxes Airbus generated in 2025 and is well above a 2026 target of €7.5 billion.Airbus is seeking to boost profits by increasing aircraft deliveries to meet strong airline demand while gradually overcoming supply chain disruption and engine shortages that have constrained output across the aerospace industry.The company said it expected its dominant commercial aircraft business to generate around €10 billion in operating profit in 2029.J.P. Morgan analysts said earlier in July Airbus was likely to reach that level of profit in its commercial aircraft business within three years.“We have a level of visibility we’ve never had before. We’ve put behind us a lot of challenges and we’ve cleared the skies to move forward, and we think we’re in a good place to give an outlook,” chief executive Guillaume Faury told investors gathered in London.Airbus started 2026 slowly because of supply chain and engine bottlenecks but has since accelerated deliveries, increasing first-half handovers by 15 per cent year-on-year.Airbus left its 2026 guidance, which includes a 10 per cent increase in commercial deliveries to 870 jets, unchanged.“We have the supply chain in a much better place. We’re still having issues here and there that will probably continue as we continue to go higher, but it’s in a much better place in the years going out of Covid,” Faury told reporters late on July 21.Airbus examining A350 production increasesAirbus said it was seeing demand for wide-body jets and looking at significant increases in production of the A350 in coming years.Airbus Commercial CEO Lars Wagner told reporters he expected protracted problems over engine supplies for smaller A320neo jets to be resolved by 2028.However, Airbus said it was pushing for more engines from RTX unit Pratt & Whitney for 2027 following a tug of war between new assembly lines and maintenance plants for scarce supplies.Airbus also hoped to receive more from alternate supplier CFM, which was already meeting its agreed quantities.Pratt & Whitney said earlier on July 21 that maintenance disruption that has left hundreds of aircraft grounded was easing, with the number of aircraft grounded for engine-related reasons down 40 per cent from the peak.Airbus confirmed it was looking at launching longer versions of its A220 and A350 aircraft but gave no timeline for a decision. REUTERS