Jet deliveries and defence demand lift Airbus Q2 profit

PARIS, July 29 (Reuters) - Airbus maintained financial and industrial forecasts as it unveiled stronger-than-expected second-quarter revenues and core profits on Wednesday, lifted by higher jetliner deliveries and gains in defence.

The world's largest planemaker said its quarterly adjusted operating profit rose 54% to 2.43 billion euros as revenues gained 28% to 20.53 billion euros, led by a surge in commercial aircraft deliveries following a slow start to the year.

Analysts were on average expecting the widely watched profit figure to come in at 2.19 billion euros on revenues of 20.25 billion.