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Boeing production in Renton, Washington, USA
Photo: Jason Redmond / REUTERS
The problems with the medium-haul jet 737 Max and other models have brought US aircraft manufacturer Boeing its fifth year of losses in a row in 2023. The bottom line was a deficit of more than 2.2 billion US dollars (a good 2 billion euros), as the competitor of the European Airbus group announced on Wednesday in Arlington. A year earlier the minus was more than twice as high. Things didn't go as badly for Boeing in the fourth quarter as analysts expected. However, CEO Dave Calhoun does not dare to make any forecasts for the current year.
Boeing is currently no longer allowed to expand production of the 737 Max series at the behest of the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). After a near-accident involving a 737-9 Max at the beginning of January, the supervisory authority is taking a close look at the production of the entire model series. Management actually wanted to increase production of the 737 jets to 50 machines per month by 2026 at the latest. Now it remains at 38 jets per month.
“Still a lot of work ahead of us”
The company is facing a “serious challenge,” said CEO Calhoun. The aircraft manufacturer must once again prove that it deserves the trust of customers and supervisory authorities. “We won’t rush anything and will take our time to do everything right,” the CEO wrote to the workforce. "The incident (at Alaska Air) makes it clear that we still have a lot of work to do."
At the beginning of January, part of the cabin wall, behind which the emergency exit is located, fell out of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft shortly after take-off from Portland at an altitude of almost five kilometers. This has developed into a new security and trust crisis. It previously seemed as if the aircraft manufacturer could finally recover from the two fatal crashes of the 737 MAX in 2018 and 2019 and from the slump in demand during the Corona crisis.
beb/dpa