Military

Boeing's Vanishing New Airplane Orders

Thinkstock

The past year has been a difficult one for Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA). In the wake of two fatal plane crashes of 737 Max planes, and the subsequent international grounding of the entire 737 Max fleet for all carriers, Boeing’s commercial jet business has been less than adequate. Boeing’s issues are looking worse than just the 737 Max plane, as its other new orders are sparse to nonexistent.

Boeing’s orders and deliveries showed that the company took in no new net plane orders for the month of January. The company still shows a backlog of 4,395 of its 737 variations and a total backlog of 5,393 total commercial airplanes, but the activity in new orders and cancellations was zero during January.

The company did deliver 13 new airplanes during the month of January. Delivered were six 787 Dreamliners, two 777 model planes, two 767 planes and three of its 737NGs.

Due to cancellations or converted orders, Boeing had an order rate of −87 planes for all of 2019. It did manage to have a full 2019 order rate of 74 of its 787 planes and 26 767 models, but it lost four net orders for the 777, and all the other net gains were wiped out by the −183 net orders for the 737 models last year.

Boeing appears to have the international carriers to thank for not keeping matters even worse during 2019. Outside of 15 BDS USAF Tanker orders, these carriers made the largest number of net orders for 2019: Emirates (30), Korean Air (20), Lufthansa (20) and British Airways (18).

Since Boeing’s 737 Max was grounded in March of last year. Since it has halted manufacturing of the planes, the company has delivered none of them and deliveries of all the company’s commercial jets totaled just 79 for the fourth quarter and 380 for the year. That compared to deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2018 of 238 new aircraft and full-year deliveries of 806 commercial planes.

Going back to Boeing’s earnings report, the shares have actually risen despite all the ongoing woes and delays. China is currently all but shut down, and many markets in Asia are far slower due to the ongoing scare of the Wuhan coronavirus.

Boeing stock was last seen down 0.4% at $343.30 a share, in a 52-week range of $302.72 to $446.01.


Want to Retire Early? Start Here (Sponsor)

Want retirement to come a few years earlier than you’d planned? Or are you ready to retire now, but want an extra set of eyes on your finances?

Now you can speak with up to 3 financial experts in your area for FREE. By simply clicking here you can begin to match with financial professionals who can help you build your plan to retire early. And the best part? The first conversation with them is free.

Click here to match with up to 3 financial pros who would be excited to help you make financial decisions.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.