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Strike slashed Boeing jet deliveries in October

Dominic Gates, The Seattle Times on

Published in Business News

With the Boeing Machinists on strike all of October, the company delivered just 10 jets in Washington state in the month, the company disclosed Tuesday.

Boeing delivered four additional 787s from its nonunion South Carolina assembly plant. The total of 14 deliveries for the month was the lowest since the height of the pandemic four years ago.

Boeing said the 10 deliveries here — nine 737 Maxes and one 767 cargo plane — were handled by managers and others not on strike.

European competitor Airbus delivered 62 commercial jets last month, including 48 A320neos that compete directly with Boeing’s Max.

As the whole industry struggles with supplier issues resulting in parts shortages, Airbus has a long way to go to reach its target of 770 jets delivered by year-end. Still, the strike caused Boeing to fall even further behind its rival.

Through October, Airbus had delivered 559 commercial jets while Boeing delivered 305.

Boeing said Tuesday “it will be several weeks before we fully restart airplane production because there are multiple steps to restarting a production line.”

Suppliers will take time to gear up again after they paused production. And as Boeing Machinists return from the strike, some will need retraining, especially the newer hires.

“Every employee will be reorientated to their role and safety requirements as they rejoin their teams,” Boeing said.

 

In addition, as the Federal Aviation Administration continues to monitor Boeing’s quality control, employees working at each jet program and assembly site must “identify potential hazards and risks and create plans to address them,” the company said.

Might some jet orders evaporate?

While the global supply of new airliners seems set to remain constrained for several years, demand remains strong — though some prior Boeing orders are in danger of slipping away due to its ongoing crisis.

In October, Boeing won 63 net new orders, 46 of which were for the Max.

That included an order for 40 Maxes from Avia Solutions Group, a company that leases to airline customers not only planes but also flight crews and maintenance.

For the year through October, Boeing has won 141 net orders.

In the past three months, Boeing cut that total by nearly 200 orders. Those were prior orders now removed from the official backlog because the slide in Boeing’s delivery schedule has left the status of the contracts uncertain.

For the year through October, Airbus has won 730 net orders.


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

 

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