Strikes cause Boeing delivery shortfall
Contributors are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the contributor directly
Boeing delivered 23% fewer aircraft in the third quarter of 2008 as industrial action took its toll on the manufacturer’s output. A machinists’ strike at Boeing’s Seattle plant has seen 27,000 workers down tools since 6 September. The strikes have caused Boeing’s shipments to slump to just 84 planes, from 109 delivered in Q3 2007.
Year-to-date, Boeing has delivered 325 planes and according to a Bloomberg report is well behind schedule for its plans to deliver between 475-480 planes this year. Bloomberg added that Boeing had an order backlog for 3,696 planes as of the end of August – enough to keep machinists busy for more than seven years.
However Chief Executive Officer, Jim McNerney, said that the current gloomy economic outlook hasn’t had any significant affect on Boeing, as the company has sufficient cash and isn’t overburdened by debt.
Virgin’s new trans-Pacific carrier, V Australia, last week blamed the Boeing machinist strikes for the delay in its launch. The airline was forced to postpone the start of services between Sydney and Los Angeles as Boeing has not been able to meet its delivery schedule.
The Q3 deliveries comprised 65 Boeing 737 Next Generation aircraft, as well as eleven 777s, four 747s and two 767s.
Comments are closed.