Boeing slashes another 7,000 jobs after $3.5bn loss
Boeing plans to cut another 7,000 jobs after sinking to a $3.5bn (£2.7bn) loss in the three months to September as the pandemic brings the aerospace industry to its knees.
Already reeling from last year’s grounding of its bestselling 737 Max jets after two fatal crashes, the embattled aerospace giant expects to lose about 30,000 staff by the end of next year.
This is up from the 19,000 redundancies announced in the summer, and will take Boeing’s total workforce to about 130,000. About 4,000 of the latest round of job losses are expected to come from attrition.
During the quarter Boeing had revenues of $14.1bn (£10.9bn), down 29pc on the same period last year.
The company’s airliner division - normally the largest part of the business - had sales of just $3.6bn, compared with $8.3bn last time round, generating a $1.4bn loss.
Plunging demand for planes because of the pandemic and continuing troubles as it tries to get the 737 Max certified as safe to fly meant just 28 jets were handed over to customers during the three months, down from 62 in the same period last year.
The company has an order backlog worth $393bn, including more than 4,300 airliners, but failed to record a single sale during the final month of the period covered by the results.
An annual long-term forecast of the market released by Boeing at the start of the month downgraded predictions for demand for commercial aircraft.
The analysis said 11pc fewer airliners will be required over the coming decade, the equivalent of $200bn of lost sales.
Dave Calhoun, chief executive, said: “The global pandemic continued to add pressure to our business this quarter, and we're aligning to this new reality by closely managing our liquidity and transforming our enterprise to be sharper, more resilient and more sustainable for the long term.
“Despite the near-term headwinds, we remain confident in our long-term future and are focused on sustaining critical investments in our business and the meaningful actions we are taking to strengthen our safety culture, improve transparency and rebuild trust."
Boeing's services division - which helps maintain aircraft and train crews - also suffered, with its sales down by a fifth to $3.7bn, although it did make a profit of $271m.
The defence and space unit propped up the business, with revenues slipping just 2pc to $6.9bn and profits of $628m.
Orders for new F-15EX fighters for the US Air Force and a contract extension for the International Space Station for NASA helped its performance, though the yet another charge, this time for $67m, on the troubled KC-46 air-to-air tanker held back results.
Boeing burnt through $4.8bn of cash in the quarter, a slightly better performance than analysts expected.
