Aerospace and Defence aircraft company Airbus Group on Thursday announced a 23 percent drop in operating profit to €501 million (about $567 million) for the first quarter ended March 2016, marginally higher than analysts' estimate of â‚¬494 million (about $563.16 million). Revenues for the quarter rose 1 percent to â‚¬12.183 million (about $13.48 billion), Reuters reported. 

Analysts had estimated revenues to come at â‚¬11.946 billion (about $13.61 billion).

The Netherlands-based aerospace group reported a heavy cash outflow due to delay in deliveries of jets.

The company's huge cash reserves notwithstanding, the delays have highlighted the Group's manufacturing risks in delivering on a commercial order book estimated at more than $1 trillion, added the agency. 

Airbus said the current year is "challenging" on expected lines.

"2016 turns out to be the challenging year we anticipated. Overall, we expect a stable financial performance but deliveries, cash and earnings will be heavily loaded towards the end of the year. And that already shows in our first quarter performance," Tom Enders, Airbus Group chief executive officer said in a statement.

"Operationally, we continue to focus on the production ramp-ups of our Airbus A350 and A320 programmes and on the change-over to the new engine versions of the A320 and A330," he added.

The Airbus Group consists of three divisions: Airbus, Airbus Defence and Space and Airbus helicopters. Europe's largest aerospace group has presence in Singapore, France, Germany, the U.K., India, the U.S., Spain, Poland and China.