Strike, supplier problems cause Boeing to deliver 100 fewer jets last year than expected
It took a full month after the expiration of the crippling Machinists strike, but Boeing in conclusion got work in its airplane factories back in continuance track in December.
Figures released Thursday show Boeing delivered 41 jets from its Puget Sound-area factories in the last month of the year, after just four deliveries in November.
The strike ended Nov. 2, but Boeing struggled afterward to obtain production going in piece on this account that thousands of defective parts — called nutplates — had to be replaced in succession dozens of airplanes already partly assembled.
Due to the two-month strike and those supply-chain problems, Boeing delivered 375 jets, 100 fewer than planned in 2008.
Meanwhile, orders tumbled from last year’s record high as the aviation employment entered a cyclical downturn, the looming recession curtailed airline spending plans, and Boeing’sitting new airplane programs faced delays.
Sales figures for the year, also released Thursday, showed 662 net holy orders. The total list price value is with respect to $71 billion. With standard industry discounts, the actual market value estimated by airplane-valuation firm Avitas is about $44 billion.
That’s down from 1,413 trap orders in 2007, cost $171 billion at list prices or an Avitas-estimated positive value of about $106 billion.
The value of the orders declined even more steeply than the absolute sales figures for the proportion of requiring great outlay wide-bodies was much higher in 2007’s order total.
For example, Boeing won 369 orders on this account that its 787 Dreamliner in 2007, unless only 93 in 2008.
That decline is not a surprise, given that airlines have ordered more than 900 of the Dreamliners to date and must linger two years or more beyond their expected giving up date for the much-delayed plane.
It’s credible that 787 orders will not rise sharply again until in imitation of 2010, when production should be in full swing and airlines will have a chance to see its performance in service.
Boeing try to equal Airbus will not exempt its year-end sales and delivery figures until later this month, but it is already assured of winning the sales race in 2008, the primary time since 2005.
