Boeing on Wednesday (25 January) said it suffered a US$650 million operating loss in the fourth quarter. The company blamed the unexpected loss on “abnormal production costs” as it tried both to deliver the remaining backlog of 737 MAX jets and to step up deliveries of the 787 Dreamliners. The company’s production of the 787 remains below normal rates. “We continue to face a few too many stoppages in our lines … as we run into supply chain shortfalls,” CEO Dave Calhoun said. “So those stoppages, while they are coming down, are not where they need to be.”
The company also warned it will post a loss in the current quarter, although it did not give a range. Boeing has reported only two profitable quarters in the nearly four years since the grounding of the 737 MAX after two fatal crashes that killed 346 people. Boeing’s problems in the fourth quarter are tied to its difficult few years since the 737 MAX crisis. The company was stuck with excess inventory of hundreds of the jets and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) raised concerns about problems with the company’s 787 Dreamliners that stopped it from delivering that model. Though the Dreamliner was not grounded like the MAX, it still affected the company: Much of Boeing’s abnormal production costs last quarter were a result of having to rework both the Max and Dreamliner jets. Boeing delivered 152 commercial jets in the quarter, up 54 percent from a year ago and better than its own target.
Boeing set to appear in court over crash settlement
A Texas federal judge has ruled that Boeing must report to court on 26 January to be arraigned on federal criminal charges in the deaths of the 346 who were killed in two Boeing MAX 737 airplane crashes in 2018 and 2019. Initially, Boeing was granted immunity from the U.S. Department of Justice as part of a US$2.5 billion deferred prosecution agreement entered in to in January 2021 regarding fraud involving the flawed design of the MAX aircraft that was never revealed to the proper authorities and officials before it was allowed to fly in the skies.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas located in Fort Worth is now asking Boeing to appear in court for an arraignment because the victims’ families were not a part of the process, and he ruled under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, they should have been. It is rare in U.S. aviation law history that a corporation is arraigned on criminal charges regarding the deaths of plane crash victims.
The attorney who has been successfully handling this criminal matter on behalf of the plaintiffs on a pro bono basis is Paul Cassell, a Distinguished Professor of Law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah, and a former federal judge and a nationally recognised expert in crime victims’ rights. He said “The families appreciate the judge’s ruling that Boeing will be treated like every other defendant in federal criminal cases and arraigned. Some family members are making plans to travel to Texas next week to address the company criminally responsible for the deaths of their loved ones.”
O’Connor directed any lawful representatives of those that identified as “crime victims” who intend to appear to be heard at the proceedings must provide notice. The crashes in 2018 and 2019 in Indonesia and Ethiopia, which cost Boeing more than US$20 billion, led to a 20-month grounding for the best-selling plane and prompted the U.S. Congress to pass legislation reforming airplane certification.