An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight from Los Angeles approaches for landing at Reagan National Airport shortly after an announcement was made by the FAA that the planes were being grounded by the United States in Washington, U.S. March 13, 2019.
Joshua Roberts | Reuters
Boeing will burn through cash this year and deliveries of new planes won’t improve in the second quarter from the first, as the manufacturer deals with a host of production challenges tied to its best-selling planes, the company’s CFO Brian West said Thursday.
A month ago, West forecast Boeing would generate free cash flow “in the low single-digit billions.” The new forecast shows the mounting costs of the planemaker’s latest crises.
Boeing’s shares were down about 6% after West’s comments at a Wolfe Research industry conference, adding to the day’s losses.
Boeing’s latest production issues surfaced after a door plug blew out midair from a nearly-new 737 Max 9 at the start of the year, just as the company was trying to repair years of reputational damage from two fatal Max crashes in 2018 and 2019.
The accident increased federal scrutiny of the company, whose executives have vowed to stamp out production flaws and regain the trust of regulators, airline customers and the public.
