(Bloomberg) -- Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc said increased travel and a jump in maintenance revenue should help the UK jet-engine maker meet full-year financial targets after long-haul flying began to rebound in the first half.

Flying hours for wide-body turbines, a key metric for highly profitable overhaul activity, have reached 60% of pre-coronavirus levels, helping to trim cash outflows by 1.1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion), London-based Rolls said in a statement Thursday.

The UK engineering giant posted an underlying operating profit of 125 million pounds for the first six months, down from 307 million pounds a year earlier, when margins were swollen by cost cuts and defense sales.

Rolls-Royce has endured a slow recovery from the coronavirus crisis as lingering barriers to international travel hold back flights with the wide-body planes it powers, depressing both new sales and revenue from shop visits. Long-haul markets are now rebounding faster, while the London-based company got a boost this week from Spanish approval for the sale of its ITP Aero arm, set to generate proceeds of 1.7 billion euros ($1.8 billion).

“We have progressed well in the first half of the year,” Chief Executive Officer Warren East, who stands down at the end of 2022, said in the release. “We are actively managing the impacts of a number of challenges, including rising inflation and ongoing supply chain disruption, with a sharper focus on pricing, productivity and costs.”

Rolls-Royce reiterated full-year financial targets of low-to-mid-single digit underlying revenue growth, an unchanged operating margin and modestly positive free cash flow this year, weighted toward the second half.

Rolls has named East’s successor as Tufan Erginbilgic, who spent 20 years at BP Plc and currently works at private equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners.

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