Military

2016 Boeing Commercial Orders Fall Far Short of Deliveries

Paul Ausick

Published: January 6, 2017 12:40 pm

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 4:05 pm

Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) reported Thursday morning that it delivered a total of 748 commercial jets in 2016, slightly above its delivery target of 740 to 745 commercial planes. Boeing delivered 185 commercial planes in the fourth quarter.

Boeing’s book-to-bill ratio plummeted from 0.975 in 2015 to 0.893. Of the company’s 668 new orders in 2016, 353 are attributed to unidentified customers and appear not to include the 80 planes ordered by Iran Air. A recent order for 75 737s from General Electric Co.’s (NYSE: GE) GECAS is included.

Here is a list of 2016 deliveries by family, along with a comparison to 2015 totals. Boeing delivered a record total of 762 new commercial planes in 2015.

• 737: 490 (down five year over year)
• 747: nine (down nine)
• 767: 13 (down three)
• 777: 99 (up one)
• 787: 137 (up two)

Boeing arch-rival Airbus reports 2016 deliveries and orders next week. The company has projected deliveries of 670 for 2016 and had booked just 410 net new orders through the end of November.

The European aircraft maker delivered 635 planes in 2015 and wrote 1,036 net new orders. Net new orders in 2014 totaled 1,456 for Airbus and 1,432 for Boeing.

Boeing’s backlog at the end of December totaled 5,715 commercial jets. Because Boeing values its backlog as contract prices rather than list prices, we won’t have a value on the backlog until the company reports quarterly results later this month. At the end of December 2015, Boeing’s backlog totaled 5,795. Here’s Boeing’s current price list for its commercial jets.

Deliveries of military aircraft were slightly better in 2016. New and remanufactured Apache AH-64 attack helicopter deliveries rose from 61 in 2015 to 65. F/A-18 deliveries dropped from 35 to 25, and F-15 deliveries rose from 12 to 15. Boeing delivered 50 new and renewed CH-47 Chinook helicopters in 2016, down from 57 in 2015.

Boeing’s shares traded up about 0.5% in the noon hour Friday, at $159.44 in a 52-week range of $102.10 to $160.07. The stock’s consensus 12-month price target is $156.20.