General Dynamics profit rises 3% on strong demand for private jets

By Nathan Gomes and Mike Stone

(Reuters) -Gulfstream jet maker Standard Dynamics Corp on Wednesday posted a 3.1% rise in initial-quarter revenue, as demand from customers for non-public air vacation in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic remained substantial.

Shares ended up up 3.5% in morning buying and selling to $245.16.

Cautious travellers who opted for private flights as a substitute of commercial flights owing to fears of contracting COVID-19 have aided drive U.S. private air visitors better than pre-pandemic concentrations.

Enterprise jet makers, keen to capitalize on that desire from rich travelers opting to fly private, have been ramping up production of their jets. The income maximize arrives after the pandemic crippled numerous aerospace companies’ capability to procure as very well as offer parts needed to produce items, generating shortages, reducing inventories and hammering income amid a time period of rising inflation.

In the quarter the business sent 25 Gulfstream business enterprise jets compared to 28 a calendar year in the past. In March the organization told the J.P. Morgan Industrials meeting that its jet aviation organization would most likely be impacted by Western sanctions on Moscow soon after its invasion of Ukraine.

Sales in the firm’s aerospace unit marginally rose to $1.9 billion from $1.89 billion a calendar year earlier, whilst overall earnings remained at $9.39 billion.

Defense contractors these types of as General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman Corp are expected to benefit from greater spending immediately after U.S. President Joe Biden’s report peacetime countrywide defense budget ask for of $813 billion was unveiled in March and the conflict in Ukraine has spurred demand from customers for far more military services investing globally.

Chief government Phebe Novakovic stated on a write-up-earnings meeting simply call that desire in Abrams tanks has amplified in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “A single of the appealing matters that we have not really found at the identical level is the Abrams desire from multiple U.S. allies.”

Internet earnings rose to $730 million, or $2.61 for each share, in the 1st quarter, from $708 million or $2.48 for every share, a calendar year previously.

Common Dynamics’ described earnings for every share of $2.61 beat Wall Road analyst consensus of $2.51. The firm’s income of $9.4 billion also conquer Wall Avenue analyst estimates of $9 billion.

(Reporting by Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru Enhancing by Maju Samuel, Chizu Nomiyama and Louise Heavens)