Annual balance sheet should set a historic negative record. The reason is the corona crisis and the 737 Max debacle.
Last year was one of the most difficult for US aviation giant Boeing in its 100-year history. In addition to the debacle surrounding the 737 Max crash plane, there was also the corona crisis in 2020, which at times almost brought air traffic to a standstill and thus put Boeing even deeper into trouble.
Accordingly, the figures for the fourth quarter and the entire past financial year should look dark on Wednesday (1.30 p.m. CET).
The Airbus arch-rival is threatened with a historic record loss and the weakest revenues for around 15 years. Already in the first nine months of 2020, Boeing's bottom line was around 3.5 billion dollars (2.87 billion euros) in negative territory and analysts are again expecting a billion-dollar deficit for the last quarter.
Boeing had already posted a loss of 636 million dollars in 2019, the first annual loss since the merger with US rival McDonnell Douglas in 1997, which marked the beginning of the company's recent history. 2020 is likely to be by far the worst result since Boeing's company was founded in 1916.
There was actually good news recently for the troubled US group. In November, Boeing's 737 Max jet was finally granted take-off permission from the US aviation authority, the FAA, after being banned from flying for more than a year and a half. The European flight inspection authority EASA has already given the green light for the jet, which was withdrawn from traffic in March 2019 after two crashes with a total of 346 deaths.
The re-registration in Europe is only a matter of form, which should be completed in these days. The 737 Max is Boeing's best-selling model and most important profit maker.
The fact that the aircraft type could not be delivered during the take-off bans has put a massive burden on Boeing in the past two years – Airbus overtook its US competitor as the world's largest aircraft manufacturer in 2019. Now the problem plane is allowed to take off again, but the corona pandemic has brought the aviation industry into one of its deepest crises.
That costs Boeing a lot of orders – according to the company, there were a good 650 cancellations in 2020. In total, more than 1,000 orders were deleted from the order book because many orders are considered unsafe.
After two pitch-black years, Boeing could have the worst behind them. The vaccines against the coronavirus also give hope to aviation and despite the many cancellations, Boeing does not have to seriously worry about a lack of orders in view of the aviation duopoly, which means that customers have almost no alternatives other than their rival Airbus, which has been fully booked for years.
Recently there were more new orders. Nevertheless, Boeing remains under strong pressure – further production cuts and job cuts are hardly surprising.
