Aviation: “Dreamliner” problems broke Boeing’s quarterly loss

aviation
“Dreamliner” problems broke Boeing’s quarterly loss

A Boeing 777X aircraft takes off on its first flight in Washington State. Photo: Ted S. Warren / AP / dpa

© dpa-infocom GmbH

The US aviation giant Boeing has already slipped into the red again. This time it is not the 737 Max who was to blame, but a breakdown series of the 787 “Dreamliner” model.

Boeing is not coming out of the crisis: Persistent problems with the long-haul 787 “Dreamliner” jets are costing US aircraft manufacturers dearly.

The necessary rework and the reduced production are likely to have a negative impact of around one billion US dollars (862 million euros), said the Airbus arch-rival in Chicago on Wednesday.

This is one of the reasons why Boeing slipped back into the red in the third quarter: the bottom line was a loss of $ 132 million after a loss of $ 466 million a year earlier. In the second quarter, Boeing had made a profit for the first time since 2019. Analysts had expected black numbers on average this time as well.

But while Boeing is slowly recovering from the debacle surrounding the 737 Max aircraft, another important model is now causing problems with the 787 “Dreamliner”. Due to various production defects, the group had to stop deliveries this year and reduce production. The misery could drag on – most recently, important suppliers such as Raytheon complained about the ongoing stresses caused by the problems with the 787.

Millions of dollars in extra costs due to breakdown series

At Boeing itself the “Dreamliner” breakdown series caused 183 million dollars in extra costs in the most recent quarter. The group continues to speak to the US aviation authority FAA to clarify the conditions for resuming deliveries. Boeing currently only builds two machines of the type per month. As soon as deliveries are possible again, production should increase to five machines again. The 737-Max production is also still at a relatively low level with 19 machines per month.

The medium-haul jet is Boeing’s bestseller, but was banned from flights for around 20 months from March 2019 due to two crashes with a total of 346 deaths. The model is now allowed to take off again in large parts of the world, but the re-registration in the important Chinese market is dragging on, which could become increasingly a problem for Boeing. Nevertheless, production is set to climb to 31 copies per month as planned in early 2022.

Another construction site of the US aviation group remains the crisis-ridden “Starliner” spaceship, whose next test flight to the ISS space station, which was actually planned for this summer, had to be postponed to the coming year due to valve problems. The annual report now shows that Boeing had to post special charges of 185 million dollars in the past quarter because of the “Starliner” program on behalf of NASA.

dpa

source site