Spirit’s Q2 revenues total $1B; up 55% from same time last year

Revenue was up 55% for Spirit AeroSystems from April to June of 2021 compared to the second quarter of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic cut global general aviation deliveries by 21.9% year over year.

Spirit’s revenue ticked up from $901 million in the first quarter of 2021.

In a financial report released Wednesday morning, the Wichita-based aerostructures manufacturing giant attributed the growth to a production boost in the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 programs, as well as the acquisition of the A220 wing and Bombardier programs.

“With continued improvement in domestic air traffic, we are seeing strong recovery in narrowbody production rates as compared to a year ago, which is leading to improved cash flow performance,” Spirit CEO Tom Gentile said in the release.

Overall shipset deliveries swelled to 243 from April to June of 2021 compared to just 159 for the same period of 2020. Spirit delivered 35 Boeing 737 shipsets compared to 19 in Q2 of 2020.

Fuselage issues with the Boeing 787 that halted deliveries in May led to a forward loss of $46 million on the 787 program, Spirit reported.

“As a result of our ongoing engagement with Boeing on the 787 program, we identified an additional issue in the forward section of the fuselage,” Gentile said. “We continue to coordinate with Boeing to ensure that we are performing all necessary rework.”

Spirit’s operating loss for the second quarter was $97.7 million, down from $367.0 million for the same period of 2020. The company’s cash balance from April to June was $1.3 billion, slightly lower than the $1.4 billion on hand at the end of the first quarter.