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Boeing forecasts big losses after the Alaska Airlines incident
CNN
Boeing will report a massive loss in the first quarter stemming from the Alaska Airlines door plug blowout on January 5, Chief Financial Officer Brian West said at an investor conference Wednesday.
Boeing will report a massive loss in the first quarter stemming from the Alaska Airlines door plug blowout on January 5, Chief Financial Officer Brian West said at an investor conference Wednesday. The beleaguered company said its commercial airplane unit’s operating profit margin would plunge to around -20%. That would be the biggest loss margin at the Boeing unit in two years, since the company had been forced to halt deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner because of other quality issues at that time. This time, the 737 Max production has been slowed because of the door plug that blew off of a 737 Max 9 on an Alaska Air flight soon after takeoff, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the jet. Shares of Boeing, a component of the Dow Jones industrial average, were down about 2% in premarket trading on the guidance. The losses will be in part because of compensation to airlines that owned the Max 9, which was grounded for three weeks after the incident. Alaska Air CEO Ben Minicucci told investors last month that the incident cost his airline about $150 million, and that it expected to be compensated for those losses by Boeing. The other contributors to losses will be “all the things we’re doing around the factory,” West said, leading to slower production at its 737 Max plant in Renton Washington.