Boeing: It will take years the aircraft business to recover from the crisis

Boeing’s chief executive said that it will take years to bring the aircraft business back to levels seen before the coronavirus pandemic, which drastically reduced air travel and caused airlines to stop 2800 planes.

“We are in an unpredictable and rapidly changing environment and it is difficult to judge when the situation will stabilize”, said Dave Calhoun in a virtual meeting with shareholders. In his words, “when it does, the market will be smaller and our customers’ needs will be different”.

Boeing went into a crisis even before the pandemic. The cessation of flights of its best-selling 737 MAX after two crashes that killed 346 people caused the company to report a loss for the first year in two decades and damage its reputation.

The coronavirus pandemic has created additional problems for Boeing as it has made airlines delay or cancel their plans to buy new aircraft. The virus also prompted the company to close its plants in a few weeks, though it recently resumed operations in Seattle and announced yesterday that it will resume production at a South Carolina plant in less than a week.

Boeing is expected to apply for a share of the 17 billion USD in low-interest loans that Congress and the Donald Trump government have earmarked for defense companies.

“We know we will have to borrow more money in the next six months to get through this really difficult time”, said Dave Calhoun, without specifying where or how much he would borrow.

The Chicago-based company will report first-quarter results tomorrow (April 29), with analysts expecting a loss of more than 500 million USD, or 1.57 USD per share.