The Boeing 737 MAX aircraft is pictured outside a Boeing factory on March 25, 2024 in Renton, Washington.
Stephen Brashear | beautiful images
Boeing Plane deliveries fell in the first quarter to their lowest since mid-2021 as the company faced increased scrutiny after a door plug exploded from one of its 737 Max 9 planes between air in January.
The company delivered 83 aircraft in the three months ended March 31, mostly 737s, compared with 157 in the previous quarter and 130 in the same period a year ago. In March alone, Boeing delivered 29 aircraft.
Boeing customers are still ordering new jets from the manufacturer, which along with Airbus dominates the large jet market. The company recorded orders for 111 new planes last month as it scrapped two cancellations, 85 of them Maximum 737 plane for American Airlineswhich the network announced in early March.
The latest inventory comes after the Jan. 5 crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 left Boeing with heavy losses. inches from a disaster. Federal accident investigators said the door plug Missing bolts keep it in place. Since the crash, the Federal Aviation Administration has examined Boeing’s 737 Max production and barred the planemaker from increasing production of the jet until it signed off on quality control procedures .
Boeing executives say the company is slowing production to improve quality control and avoid so-called work moves where repairs or other tasks happen out of sequence. .
“We’re not going to rush it or go too fast,” Boeing Chief Financial Officer Brian West said at the Bank of America conference last month. “In fact, we are deliberately slowing down to get this right. And we were the ones who made the decision to limit rates on the 737 program to under 38 per month until we felt we were ready. And we’ll feel the impact of that over the next few months.”
Airplane delivery delays cause criticism from the CEOs of some of Boeing’s largest aerospace customers, and then CEO Dave Calhoun last month announced he would resigned at the end of the year. Boeing also replaced the chairman of the board and the head of its commercial aircraft division.
Alaska Airlines said last week it had received it 160 million USD in compensation from Boeing in the first quarter stemming from the plane having to land briefly after the accident.
Boeing is expected to report first-quarter results and update investors on April 24.
