In the ongoing coverage of Boeing, Reuters reported that the company's future plans in the ongoing investigation focused on the safety of the company's 737 models.
CEO of Boeing, Dave Calhoun will be delivering the company's fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday despite the safety investigation. The most recent investigation is focused on the malfunctioning of a mid-air blowout of a 737 MAX 9, a passenger flight that was being operated by Alaska Airlines. No injuries were reported, however, this accident resulted in 737 models being grounded.
"I'm Fully Confident In Boeing's Long-Term Prospects"
Analysts have estimated that the main focus of the company at the moment is on emphasizing aircraft safety and overall production quality. J.P. Morgan's Seith Seifman stated "The first thing investors should realize ... is they are not the direct focus of this call. "What is important is safety, quality, Boeing's processes, the way that Boeing's workforce performs, and the way that Boeing's managers evaluate and incentivize that workforce. Those are things that I think management will really need to talk about."
Reuters also states that The AirCurrent, a trade publication, reported that the door that blew off was received by Boeing's factory from Spirit AeroSystems with proper bolts installed however the manufacturer had re-opened it to give access to rivets that were mis-installed by Spirit. Both parties told officials on January 18th that it was too early to outright say if the cause of the mid-air blowout was due to missing or mis-installed bolts.
Before this incident, Boeing had a projected free cash flow of $10 billion by 2025-2026, on top of that 737 production was projected to stand at 50 per month. However, that plan is now up in the air as the FAA stated it wouldn't approve the production rate of the 737 MAX. Richard Aboualfia of Aerodynamic Advisory stated "It gives even less confidence to their guidance and guarantees. A flat year at best." He went on to say that "There are so many question marks and this is just yet another one." Despite the seemingly endless flow of questions many investors still have Boeing's ability to bounce back from this incident. An example of this comes from Gabelli Funds, Tony Bancroft who stated that, "I'm fully confident in Boeing's long-term prospects".
