Boeing boss forecasts 737 MAX deliveries to resume by year-end

October 30th 2020

Print Friendly

Boeing CEO, Dave Calhoun, said this week it was still his expectation 737 MAX deliveries would resume before the end of the year. Read More »

Speaking at the company's latest quarterly results presentation, Calhoun said he was encouraged by the certification and validation flights of the 737 MAX conducted by a number of aviation regulators in recent times.

"Our assumption has not changed from the last quarter,” Calhoun said.

“We continue to expect the necessary regulatory approvals to be obtained in time to support resumption of deliveries during the fourth quarter of this year. Of course, the actual time will ultimately be determined by the global regulators."

The 737 MAX has been grounded since March 2019 after two fatal crashes of the type left 346 passengers and crew dead. About half of the grounded planes are in the fleets of North American and Chinese carriers.

Boeing chief financial officer, Greg Smith, said the company had about 450 737 MAX aircraft built and stored in inventory. Of those, about half were expected to be delivered by the end of 2021 and the majority of the rest in 2022. Some of the type might have to be remarketed and potentially reconfigured, he said.

While Boeing's expectations for the 737 MAX were unchanged, Calhoun was less committal about the entry-into-service of the in-development 777-X program now being flight tested.

He said Boeing was continuing to work with regulators on certification work scope, including lessons learnt from the 737 MAX certification processes. "As with any development program, there are inherent risks that can affect the schedule," Calhoun said.

"While we continue to drive towards entry-into-service in 2022, this timing will ultimately be influenced by certification requirements defined by the regulators."

Boeing reported a net loss of US$449 million for the three months to September 30, compared with a net profit of US$1.2 billion for the same quarter last year. It was the company's fourth consecutive quarterly loss. Revenue declined 29%, to US$14.1 billion.

The company delivered 28 commercial aircraft in the third quarter to September 30, down from 62 in the period a year ago. Revenue from the commercial airplane division fell 56%, to US$3.6 billion, "reflecting lower delivery volume primarily due to COVID-19 impacts and 787 quality issues and associated rework", Boeing said.

Calhoun told staff there would be more job losses. Boeing has targeted a workforce of 130,000 employees by the end of 2021, a reduction of 30,000 from 160,000 staff in January. Previously, Boeing had announced that 19,000 job were to go. The latest announcement means another 11,000 people will be let go by the aerospace manufacturer.

Calhoun acknowledged, in response to a question, that Boeing had lost market share to Airbus in recent times, especially in respect of the A321.

"Market share, without a doubt, we've lost some share. When you don't produce an airplane for a year and the other guy does, by definition, you take a big hit with respect to share," Calhoun said.

"With respect to future competitions and our airplane competing against their airplane, I'm not going to give up any ground, and I don't believe we will.