Boeing has posted its first annual loss since 1997 in its 2019 Q4 earnings report, published on Wednesday morning.
The quarterly report, which includes figures for the past twelve months, lists that Boeing made losses amounting US $636 million in the whole year of 2019. That’s down from a positive income of $10.46 billion in 2018.
This comes in the middle of the 737 MAX crisis, which started in March 2019 when aviation regulators around the world and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States grounded the aircraft type following two deadly crashes. Boeing at the time immediately stopped delivering 737 MAX to customers and is this month even suspending construction of the airplane.
The company further says that the costs of the 737 MAX grounding are likely to extend to more than US $18 billion, including $2.6 billion in compensation for airlines that operate the aircraft type.
Boeing only recently stated that the 737 MAX likely won’t resume service before mid-2020.
A total of 127 737 family aircraft, including the previous generation, were delivered in 2019, down from 580 in the previous year. All aircraft types combined, the manufacturer delivered less than half the amount of planes, compared to 2018 figures.
Read more: Boeing set to cut 787 production rate to 10 per month
Jakob Wert is an aviation journalist from Germany. He built up the website IFN.news and is the Editor-In-Chief of International Flight Network.
