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Boeing lost billions from fines and canceled orders and posted a loss of almost almost $3 billion in Q2 of 2019.
The planes were finally cleared to fly again in late 2020 after changes were made to the flight control system and training manuals updated.
These disasters, together with Covid-related demand issues, caused Boeing to lose almost $12 billion in 2020.
Two years after the 737 Max issue boiled over, Boeing hit another snag, this time concerning a different plane model, the 787 Dreamliner. Due to production problems, the company had to hold planes back from delivery and redo certain parts.
This caused another major dip in the company’s profit in Q4 2021 of more than $4 billion, while assorted problems in commercial jets and the defense business caused another substantial loss in Q3 of 2022 of $3.3 billion.
Now the issues on the 737 Max have been back in the spotlight since early 2024, which led to decreased production and contributed to losses hitting $1.4 billion in Q2 of this year once more.
A wider critique of Boeing and attempt at an explanation for the continued safety issues is that cost-cutting and a lack of leadership consistency led to design and construction shortcuts that are now surfacing en masse.
Airbus meanwhile has been back in the black since 2021. Its biggest loss quarter over the past 5.5 years was Q4 of 2019, when the company had to pay a huge fine in a corruption case.
In recent years a lot of my holiday flights have been on 737s but they don’t advertise the “Max” bit. In the safety card it might be called a 737-800, but if you go up the rear entrance steps you can see 737-Max in small print on the outside. I wonder how many people would have cancelled if they knew ?
And the Boeing space department is joining in on the fun … massive delays, cost overruns and still coming up with a flaky product, most likely requiring Space X to come to the rescue …