EADS burns through €3bn of its cash EADS, the European aerospace group, said it burnt through more than €3bn ($3.8bn) of cash in the nine months to September as it ramped up development and production costs at its Airbus civil aircraft maker and wrangled with Germany over a launch loan for the A350 passenger jet. In its first results since being forced to abandon merger talks with BAE Systems , the British defence manufacturer, EADS said net income more than doubled in the period to €911m on the back of strong sales at Airbus. However, the company also acknowledged that programmes such as its flagship A350 "remain challenging." It also said a backlog of its A380 superjumbos was waiting for delivery in the final quarter, further weighing on its cash. Negative free cash flow in the period was €3.2bn. Tom Enders, the German chief executive, said: "We will not run out of operational challenges any time soon, especially at Eurocopter and Airbus. And for the rest of the year, we'll put strong emphasis on cash generation. Aircraft deliveries are key. The comments come as Mr Enders has embarked on a root and branch review of whether EADS" longstanding strategy of balancing Airbus sales with non-Airbus sales - known as Vision 2020 - remains feasible after the collapse of the BAE talks. The BAE deal would have allowed the company to mimic the strategy of Boeing in the US by having about half of its sales coming from the less cyclical defence market. In the third quarter Airbus accounted for 68 per cent of group sales and 53 per cent of operating profit. The heavy cash outlay at Airbus and risk of delivering large civil aircraft programmes on time and without heavy cost overruns highlights the danger of remaining too reliant on the passenger jet business. EADS said it was sticking to full-year profits targets and for the delivery of 30 A380 passenger jets. It said it should break even on a free cash flow basis should the A380s be delivered, though this was a more cautious outlook than previous guidance of positive free cash flow. The company said it had net cash of €8.1bn at the end of September, down from €11.7bn at the end of last year. Airbus also expected charges related to fixing cracks on wing components of the A380 would amount to €260m this year. In the nine months to September, EADS earnings before interest and tax rose at all of its operating divisions except Cassidian, the German-based defence business. Mr Enders has said the company will need to re-examine its defence business in the wake of the failure of the BAE deal, which was largely scuppered by Berlin's concerns over losing influence if the company was merged. Germany is also threatening to withhold part of the launch loan for the A350 because of worries about its share of the work. Revenues in the nine months to September rose 14 per cent to €37.3bn, while net income rose 114 per cent to €903m.