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Boeing deliveries lag amid ongoing Machinists strike

Lauren Rosenblatt, The Seattle Times on

Published in Business News

Boeing delivered fewer airplanes in September compared with recent months and past years, as it felt the first effects of the ongoing Machinists strike.

The aerospace manufacturer said Tuesday it delivered 33 planes in September, down from 40 in August, 43 in July and 44 in June.

The 33 deliveries are slightly more than in the same month last year — when Boeing reported 27 deliveries — but significantly lower than its 10-year average for the month, which sits at 50 planes.

The company doesn’t break down the delivery rate by week, but its factories in the Puget Sound region ground to a halt on Sept. 13 when roughly 33,000 unionized Machinists walked off the job after negotiations over a new contract stalled. Those workers remain on strike as the company and the union remain split on wage increases and retirement benefits.

With work at its factories in Renton and Everett temporarily paused, Boeing will continue to see the impact of the strike on its October delivery rates.

Even before the labor dispute, Boeing had slowed work at its factories for most of this year after a panel blew off a 737 Max plane midflight in January. That incident temporarily grounded the Max 9 fleet and led the FAA to cap production of the 737 Max jet at 38 planes per month.

Boeing has yet to reach that production rate after slowing to focus on quality and safety. Now, the ongoing strike may put that production ramp-up even further out of reach, analysts predicted.

With Boeing still under heightened regulatory scrutiny and facing production delays and mounting debt, analysts have said a prolonged work stoppage could significantly hamper the company’s ability to recover from the January safety incident.

The number of deliveries Boeing reported Tuesday is not directly comparable to the production rate in its factories. The company has other planes parked at its factories that it can rework for delivery, rather than moving the jet through its entire production line.

 

In September, Boeing delivered 27 737 Max planes, four 787 jets and one 737 NG for its P-8 maritime patrol aircraft program. It also delivered one 767 freighter to UPS.

Comparatively, Boeing delivered 32 Max planes in August and four 787s, as well as three 777 freighters.

From the start of the year through the end of September, Boeing delivered a total of 291 airplanes, compared with 371 jets for the same time frame last year. Of the 291 planes delivered so far this year, 225 were 737 Maxes.

Boeing’s gross orders have also decreased significantly year over year. The company has booked 315 gross orders through the end of September this year, down from 848 gross orders for the same months last year.

It reported 65 gross orders for the month of September, including orders for 54 737 Max planes and 11 777 freighters. CBD Aviation, a subsidiary of a Chinese leasing company, placed an order for 50 of those 54 737 Max planes in mid-September.

Boeing did not have any order cancellations or conversions in September, but when factoring in accounting principles for U.S. manufacturers, Boeing’s total orders were minus 1 for the month.

The company’s backlog grew last month from 5,490 at the end of August to 5,456 at the end of September.


©2024 The Seattle Times. Visit seattletimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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