Boeing HQ
Today’s key news for Boeing include the financial reality that delivering every airplane in backlog won’t bring Boeing’s debt back to 2018 levels, and the change in C-suite officers continues, with CEO Susan Doniz leaving the company.
Our friend Scott Hamilton at Leeham has an interesting analysis on Boeing’s high debt levels that indicates selling every airplane in the current backlog still wouldn’t bring their debt ratio back in line with where the company was in 2018. Fixing Boeing will be neither quick nor easy.
Susan Doniz departure as CIO represents the 5th member of the executive council to leave the company in 2024, joining Chief Lobbyist Ziad Ojakli, communications chief Brian Besanceney, and Defense chief Ted Colbert. This is not atypical after a management change at a company that is ailing financially.
A summary of Boeing’s terrible 2024 shows why this year has not been kind for the company. From January with the MAX 9 door panel blowout to management changes to Starship astronauts stranded to be rescued by the competition, to a strike, the company has been rocked by bad news throughout the year.
Boeing will attempt to get aggressive in 737 MAX production rates in 2025, but this remains out of their control. The FAA is still limiting the company to a maximum 38 aircraft per month, and supply chain constraints remain problematic for most of the industry. Plus, the 737 MAX 7 and MAX 10 need to be certified, the schedule for which is determined by the FAA, not the company, Most industry experts are skeptical of their most recent supplier guidance.
Akasa Air, based in India, has a current fleet of 26 737s and has 200 MAX aircraft on order. It has been taking airplanes from Boeing’s inventory that can be made available, and is likely to take more of the aircraft originally destined for China that were not taken up.
Finally, Malaysia has agreed to a new search for MH370, ten years after the disappearance of the aircraft. New technology has provided new clues to a potential location in the southern Indian Ocean west of Australia. But airplanes in the Pacific can go missing for long periods of time, like the aircraft of Amelia Earhart.
Links to todays key new follow:
- A decade to normal? Delivering every airplane in backlog won’t clear debt to 2018 levels – Leeham
- Boeing CIO Susan Doniz to leave company, CEO tells employees – BNN Bloomberg
- Boeing’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year – Business Insider
- Boeing is about to get ‘aggressive’ in building more 737 MAX planes – Quartz
- Akasa Air in ‘continuous discussions’ with Boeing to add more planes this fiscal – Hindustan Times
- Malaysia agrees to new search for MH370, ten years after flight vanished – Seattle Times
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