Boeing HQ
Today’s key stories about Boeing center about a poor April for orders and deliveries, and speculation regarding future leadership and Warren Buffett. Other stories focus on an additional four day delay for the manned Starliner launch, Emirates and Flydubai both upset at Boeing delays, and the milestone that everyone missed, the 1,500th MAX delivery to Ryanair.
Links to today’s key
- Boeing delivers fewest jets since pandemic on 737 MAX slowdown – Yahoo
- Boeing leadership frontrunners: Who will be the next Boeing CEO? – Investing.com
- There is blood in Boeing’s streets, is Buffett buying – 24/7 Wall Street
- Boeing Starliner astronaut launch delayed to May 21 – BNN Bloomberg
- Emirates ramps up B777X rhetoric amid delays – ch-aviation
- Boeing delivers the 1,500th 737 MAX – World Airline News
- Boeing orders tumble as troubled aircraft maker struggles to overcome its latest crisis – Daily Mail
- Flydubai chief doubts Boeing can deliver Dreamliners by 2026 – Simple Flying
The Bottom Line:
We’ve moved from the “we have a problem” phase when describing Boeing to having journalists speculate on future leadership or a potential acquisition. Clearly the news about scant deliveries in April and net negative orders for the month are important, but miss the key issue of sustaining cash flow. Boeing obtained an additional $10 billion in debt last month for a reason – with a lack of deliveries April will be a heavy cash burn month. We spoke about this type of risk in 2020.
The airlines continue to be upset by Boeing, and comments from Emirates and Flydubai underscore their concerns about likely capacity shortfalls. Since Airbus can’t fill the gap and depends on many of the same players in the supply chain, there is no viable alternative for airlines, as we say in Lufthansa Group’s CEO comments last week.
Having the launch of the Starliner manned mission moved from the same day as Boeing’s quarterly call, this Friday the 17th, will move one pressing item off the table. Friday’s call, and management’s comments, which the SEC will be watching carefully, will be quite interesting.
Views: 0
