Problems in the armaments business put the US aircraft manufacturer Boeing deep into the red again in the third quarter. Above all, increased costs and technical problems with the tanker aircraft for the US Air Force, the presidential aircraft Air Force One, a stealth drone and a training aircraft led to a quarterly loss of 3.3 billion US dollars (around 3.3 billion euros), as Boeing reported in Arlington announced. A year earlier, the minus had amounted to just $ 132 million.
“Turnarounds take time,” announced Boeing boss Dave Calhoun, with a view to the ongoing crisis at Airbus rivals. “But I have faith in our team and the actions we are taking going forward,” the CEO said in a memo to employees. Boeing has been struggling with new problems since two planes in its important 737 Max model series crashed due to technical errors, in which a total of 346 people died in 2018 and 2019.
Sales grow only slightly
Not only the armaments division, but also the business with passenger and cargo aircraft for commercial aviation remained in the red in the third quarter – although sales here grew by 40 percent year-on-year thanks to significantly higher delivery figures. Across the group, revenues increased by only four percent to almost 16 billion dollars. The reason was the armaments and space division, whose revenues collapsed by a fifth to 5.3 billion dollars.
The background to the problems also includes an order that Boeing agreed in 2018 under ex-boss Dennis Muilenburg with former US President Donald Trump for the construction of the new Air Force One. Muilenburg had promised a good price after Trump’s attacks, but the costs got out of hand. In April, Calhoun acknowledged that the deal resulted in billions in charges and that Boeing “probably” shouldn’t have taken it. The losses in the most recent quarter are also due not least to the agreed fixed prices in the armaments business, said the Boeing boss now.
Overall, Boeing’s quarterly figures clearly missed the average expectations of industry experts. The stock fell slightly in the premarket. With a large order from the airline Alaska Air for 52 Boeing 737 Max, there was at least a little positive news on Wednesday. In recent years, Boeing has repeatedly suffered billions of dollars in losses, mainly due to problems with its passenger aircraft. The European competitor Airbus had already snatched the position as the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer from the former world market leader in 2019.
