In a statement made on Wednesday, EADS, the European aerospace group announced an extension to its Power8 restructuring at plane maker Airbus. In addition, the group has also announced the measures to tackle a weak dollar after reporting a remarkable increase in the first-half year profits.

Most notably, the Airbus parent company reconfirmed the details regarding the operating and cash saving targets for the Power8 plan, which is scheduled to run between 2007 and 2010. Over and above, the company also said that the brand new Power8 Plus program would take into account the delivery of a further annual EUR1 billion euros in 2011-12 at the level of operating income.

According to the statement made by EADS, it appears that triggered by the Power8 charges, the earnings of the company before interest and tax significantly rose to EUR1.16 billion from EUR358 million during the first half last year. Also, the net profit of the firm rose up to EUR403 million from EUR71 million that was reported earlier.

The intake by the company at the Farnborough air show was a tremendous success. Following that, EADS reaffirmed that it has significantly raised its main financial targets and confirmed an increase in its annual forecast for Airbus orders in 2008 to 850 from the earlier performance of around 700 planes.

EADS said that the company was firmly into taking "decisive actions" on currency hedging. It appears that the firm has already started complimenting its hedging positions further by buying a "significant amount" of US dollar options.