PARIS, Feb 22 (Reuters) - European aerospace group Airbus took a new 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) charge for its troubled A400M military aircraft programme as it posted higher than expected core earnings and revenues for 2016.
The company, reporting for the first time as Airbus and with a new financial format after ditching the Airbus Group brand in a revamp that recognises the dominance of its civil business, said "adjusted" operating income fell 4 percent to 3.955 billion euros on revenues which rose 3 percent to 66.581 billion.
Its results had been buoyed by a last-minute surge in civil jetliner deliveries.
Analysts were on average expecting a 7.3 percent drop in full-year operating earnings before one-offs to 3.83 billion euros on sales up 0.7 percent to 64.919 billion.
($1 = 0.9488 euros) (Reporting by Tim Hepher and Cyril Altmeyer; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)