Air India crash: Boeing shares plummet
Seattle. The crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner operated by Air India is devastating news for the aircraft's US manufacturer. It is the first such accident involving a Dreamliner since the wide-body aircraft was launched in 2009. While the cause of the crash was initially unclear, Boeing shares plummeted sharply in premarket trading in the US.
The 787 was the first commercial aircraft to widely use lithium-ion batteries, which are lighter, charge faster, and can store more energy than other battery types. In 2013, the 787s were temporarily grounded because these batteries overheated and, in some cases, caused fires.
Boeing, however, had particular problems with its 737 Max. One of the aircraft crashed in Indonesia in 2018 and another in Ethiopia in 2019, killing 346 people. The cause was a sensor that delivered erroneous readings and forced the nose down, preventing the pilots from regaining control. After the second crash, the Max jets were grounded worldwide until the company revised the system. However, in January 2024, the emergency exit lock on a Boeing Max operated by Alaska Airlines came loose during flight, again bringing negative headlines to the aircraft type.
In May, the U.S. Department of Justice and Boeing agreed that the company would not face criminal charges for allegedly misleading U.S. regulators in connection with the two fatal crashes - in return for a billion-dollar payment.
Mid-flight, a door panel rips from its anchorage, but miraculously, no one is seriously injured. January's massive mishap is far from the only one in Boeing's recent history. Why can't the US company emerge from the crisis?
Boeing reported a loss of $11.8 billion in 2024, bringing its total losses since 2019 to more than $35 billion.
The company's financial problems were exacerbated by a strike by the machinists who assemble the aircraft at the factories in Renton and Everett, Washington, which brought production at those facilities to a halt and affected Boeing's ability to deliver.
Tighter government control and a worker strike led to a decline in Boeing's aircraft deliveries last year. Boeing reported delivering 348 passenger planes in 2024. That's a third less than the 528 it reported for the previous year and less than half the 766 planes its main competitor, Airbus, delivered in 2023.
By the first quarter of 2025, Boeing's losses had dropped to just $31 million. CEO Kelly Ortberg saw the company on the right track. Airlines also continued to purchase aircraft from the US company. Just this May, Boeing received major orders from two customers in the Middle East. According to Boeing, the $96 billion order for 787 and 777X jets from Qatar is the largest order for 787 and wide-body aircraft in the company's history.
RND/AP
rnd
