Spirit AeroSystems’ first-quarter 2021 revenue was US$900.8 million, down from the same period of 2020, primarily due to the significantly lower wide-body production rates as a consequence of reduced international air traffic resulting from the impacts of COVID-19 as well as lower production rates on the Airbus A320 program. First-quarter 2021 revenue includes increased revenue from the recently acquired A220 wing and Bombardier programs as well as defense program revenue. Deliveries decreased to 269 shipsets during the first quarter of 2021 compared to 324 shipsets in the same period of 2020, including Boeing 787 deliveries of 15 shipsets compared to 40 shipsets in the same period of the prior year, and 12 Airbus A350 shipset deliveries compared to 26 in the same period of 2020.
In the first quarter of 2021, Airbus A320 deliveries were 130 compared to 188 in the first quarter of 2020. Spirit’s backlog at the end of the first quarter of 2021 was approximately US$33 billion, with work packages on all commercial platforms in the Boeing and Airbus backlog.
Operating loss for the first quarter of 2021 was US$125.9 million, as compared to an operating loss of US$167.5 million in the same period of 2020. The decreased loss was primarily driven by lower restructuring costs, excess capacity, abnormal COVID-19 related production costs, and SG&A expense in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the first quarter of 2020, partially offset by additional forward losses on Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 programs. Included in the first quarter 2021 operating loss were pretax US$5.8 million of unfavorable cumulative catch-up adjustments and excess capacity costs of US$67.6 million. Additionally, the first quarter of 2021 included pretax forward loss charges of US$72.4 million, primarily driven by Boeing 787 engineering analysis and rework to support Boeing’s resumption of deliveries and the impact of lower Airbus A350 production rates coupled with higher costs to achieve production quality improvements. In comparison, during the first quarter of 2020, Spirit recorded pretax US$8.2 million of unfavorable cumulative catch-up adjustments, excess capacity costs of US$73.4 million, US$19.7 million of net forward loss charges, restructuring expenses of US$42.6 million and abnormal COVID-19 costs of US$25.4 million.
