An aerial photo shows Boeing 737 MAX airplanes parked on the tarmac on the Boeing Factory in Renton, Washington, U.S. March 21, 2019.
Lindsey Wasson | Reuters
Boeing‘s aircraft orders and deliveries fell in January as the corporate grappled with the fallout from a midflight blowout of a fuselage panel on one among its 737 Max 9s, an accident that overshadowed the manufacturer’s strong finish in 2023.
The corporate handed over 27 planes last month, its lowest tally since September, compared with 67 deliveries in December. It sold three Boeing 737 Max planes, but additionally logged three cancellations.
The deliveries were roughly consistent with what some analysts expected. The three gross orders come after a giant December when Boeing sold 371 planes.
Boeing rival Airbus handed over 30 planes in January.
Boeing executives have been scrambling to influence airline customers, investors and regulators that it’s going to find more reliable footing after the Jan. 5 accident, when a door plug blew out on an Alaska Airlines flight at 16,000 feet shortly after it left Portland, Oregon. Nobody was seriously injured on Flight 1282, however the violent detachment ripped off headrests and exposed travelers to a gaping hole within the twenty sixth row.
Bolts that hold the unused exit door panel in place seemed to be missing from the fuselage piece, which had been removed and put back at Boeing’s 737 Max factory in Renton, Washington, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report Feb. 6.
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun has vowed to review manufacturing processes at the corporate’s facilities. The Federal Aviation Administration said it might halt Boeing’s planned production increases until it’s “satisfied that the standard control issues uncovered during this process are resolved.”
“I’m type of glad they called out a pause because that is a superb excuse to simply take our time, do it right,” Calhoun said on an earnings call Jan. 31.
Boeing earlier this month disclosed it might have to transform about 50 undelivered Max planes due to incorrectly drilled holes, a recent production glitch that would slow deliveries.
The FAA is auditing Boeing’s production, and the agency’s administrator, Mike Whitaker, told CNBC last month that it’s going to keep “boots on the bottom” at Boeing and perform direct inspections of labor there. The audit includes about two-dozen inspectors, stationed on the Renton factory and in Wichita, Kansas, where Spirit Aerosystems makes the Max fuselages.
Boeing now has to periodically pause its production line, and CFO Brian West said at a TD Cowen investor conference on Tuesday that the corporate expects to be at a gradual rate of 38 Max planes a month within the second half of the 12 months.
“We’re doing that in order that we are able to get the advantage of our audit, we are able to get the advantage of our own inspection protocols, and that can just slow the road,” West said.
FAA Administrator Whitaker is traveling to the Renton plant this week.
Boeing’s January deliveries included three Max planes to Chinese customers, the primary in about 4 years.