Boeing has reported a sharp drop in quarterly deliveries, earning, and, most troubling, in sales today. The steep decline is being blamed on the problems connected with the two fatal crashes of their 737 Max plane jets earlier this year. The 737 Max was grounded after the second deadly crash, and none have flown since then, nor are they expected to in the near future. In fact, reports are that the company has now stopped delivery of the jet on pre-orders. This blow to the corporate bottom line is creating chaos, not only for Boeing, but for the aircraft industry as a whole.
Earnings were down a disheartening forty-three percent. Sales dropped twenty-one percent, to around twenty billion dollars.
Boeing told its board of directors, prior to their annual stockholder’s meeting, that commercial airline earnings this past summer dropped a massive forty million dollars from the previous year. Deliveries in the same department fell sixty-seven percent during the same quarter. The entire Boeing delivery numbers for that quarter was a meager 62 aircraft.
Boeing is still hoping that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will give the green light to the Max being able to take to the skies again next spring, but many hedge fund managers are now unloading Boeing stock and have no plans to pick it up again even if the Max does take off next year.
