US plane maker Boeing on Wednesday (27 January) posted a net loss for 2020 of US$11.9 billion after suffering through the grounding of its 737 MAX jet, the COVID-19 pandemic and news that it’s delayed 777X won’t enter service until 2023. The company said it was taking a charge of US$6.5 billion on the 777X programme.
CEO Dave Calhoun called 2020 “a year like no other” and said, “our world, our industry, our business and our communities were facing unprecedented challenges, and we’re still in the midst of it,” he said in a teleconference call with Wall Street analysts. The CEO said Boeing’s business won’t get back to pre-COVID production levels before 2023.
The company reported US$1.8 billion in additional accounting charges, including write-offs for the 737 MAX, the KC-46 Air Force tanker, and the recent settlement of fraud charges with the Department of Justice. The company also warned it may have to take additional charges for problems with its widebody 787 Dreamliner, which has suffered quality defects at the joins of the jet’s carbon fibre composite fuselages. No 787s have been delivered for the past two months. Calhoun said there will be no deliveries this month, either, and “very few, if any” in February. In the fourth quarter, with a total of US$8.3 billion in write-offs, Boeing had a net loss of US$8.4 billion on revenue of US$15.3 billion.
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