Boeing’s quarterly airplane deliveries drop to 83 amid safety crisis

Boeing
airplane
deliveries
dropped
in
the
first
quarter to
the
lowest
number
since
mid-2021 as
the
company
faces
increased
scrutiny
after
a
door
plug
blew
out
from
one
of
its
737
Max
9
planes
midair
in
January.

The
company
handed
over
83
planes
in
the
three
months
ended
March
31,
most
of
them
737s,
compared
with
157
in
the
prior
quarter
and
130
planes
in
the
year-earlier
period.
Solely
in
March,
Boeing
delivered
29
planes.
Airbus
said
Tuesday
that
it
delivered
142
planes
in
the
first
three
months
of
the
year,
63
of
them
in
March.

Boeing
customers
are
still
ordering
new
jets
from
the
manufacturer,
which
along
with
Airbus
dominates
the
large
jetliner
market.
The
company
logged
orders
for
111
for
new
planes
last
month
when
stripping
out
two
cancellations,
85
of
them

737
Max
aircraft
for


American
Airlines,
which
the
carrier
announced
in
early
March.

The
latest
tally
comes
after
the
Jan.
5
accident
on
Alaska
Airlines
Flight
1282
brought
Boeing

inches
from
a
catastrophe.
Federal
accident
investigators
said
the
door
plug
was

missing
bolts
that
hold
it
in
place.
Since
the
accident,
the
Federal
Aviation
Administration
has
inspected
Boeing’s
737
Max
production
and
barred
the
plane
maker
from
increasing
output
of
the
jets
until
it
signs
off
on
its
quality
control
procedures.

Boeing
executives
have
said
the
company
is
slowing
down
its
production
to
improve
quality
control
and
avoid
so-called
traveled
work,
when
repairs
or
other
tasks
occur
out
of
sequence.

“We
won’t
rush
or
go
too
fast,”
Boeing
CFO
Brian
West
said
at
a
Bank
of
America
conference
last
month. “In
fact,
we’re
deliberately
going
to
slow
to
get
this
right.
And
we
are
the
ones
who
made
the
decision
to
constrain
rates
on
the
737
program
below
38
per
month
until
we
feel
like
we’re
ready.
And
we’ll
feel
the
impact
of
that
over
the
next
several
months.”

Aircraft
delivery
delays

sparked
criticism
from
the
CEOs
of
some
of
Boeing’s
biggest
airline
customers,
and
in
its
wake,
CEO
Dave
Calhoun
last
month
announced
he
will

step
down
by
year’s
end.
Boeing
also
replaced
its
board
chair
and
the
head
of
its
commercial
airplane
unit.

Alaska
Airlines
said
last
week
it
received

$160
million
in
compensation
from
Boeing
in
the
first
quarter
stemming
from
a
brief
grounding
of
the
plane
after
the
accident.

Boeing
is
scheduled
to
report
first-quarter
results
and
update
investors
on
April
24.