Safran chief executive Philippe Petitcolin has labelled the coronavirus pandemic "devastating" for the aerospace industry after the engine maker reported a drop in profits.

The firm, which operates Safran Landing Systems at Staverton, saw operating profits fall by 49.7 per cent to £855.8million across the first half of the year.

Revenues fell by 28 per cent to around £7.9million.

Despite the sizeable drop, it was better than predictions with analysts at Refinitiv forecasting an operating profit of £758million with revenues of almost £7.7billion.

Mr Petitcolin said Safran would emerge stronger from the crisis as it remodelled to cope with the extended fall in air travel.

Safran predicted 35 per cent drop in revenue across all of 2020 with an operating margin around 10 per cent.