News
Boeing Cuts Future Production On Several Plane Lines
Media coverage of Boeing's announced production cuts focused on the impact this will have on the company. The articles often stressed how this move was not unexpected due to falling demand and that further cuts are likely. The AP (4/10, Lovering) reports, "Boeing Co. plans to scale back production of some of its jetliners next year as the global economic crisis further saps demand for commercial aircraft, a move expected to result in fresh job cuts." Beginning in 2010, Boeing plans to cut 777 production from seven to five planes and delay increasing production of 747-8s and 767s. "Boeing expects the changes will result in an unspecified number of new job cuts, said Jim Proulx, a company spokesman." The company also expects this to reduce first quarter earnings when it reports them later this month. Scott Hamilton, a consultant for Leeham Co., "said the production changes simply reflected broad economic conditions, and that Boeing eventually may have to reduce building of its 737 as well." The New York Times (4/10, B8) reprints a shorter version of the AP story. About 88 papers and websites also reprint the AP.
USA Today (4/10) notes that the projected cuts come even though Boeing executives "had maintained previously that their huge backlog of nearly 3,700 planes on order and their experience in managing through down cycles would keep the company's assembly lines humming for years." Scott Carson, Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief executive, said, "It's necessary to adjust our production plans to align supply with these tough market conditions."
Boeing, on the front page of the Wall Street Journal's (4/10, B1, Lunsford) Marketplace section, stated "the moves...'solely reflect delivery deferrals requested by customers in response to unprecedented declines in global passenger and air-cargo volumes.'" The Chicago Tribune (4/10, Miller) reports that Boeing "emphasized" that the cuts related to delivery delays, "rather than outright cancellations." Reuters (4/10, Rigby) also notes that experts have been expecting production cuts from Boeing, as well as competitor Airbus, for a while.
Bloomberg News (4/10, Ray), BusinessWeek (4/10, Bachman), Dayton (OH) Business Journal (4/10, McCoy), Dow Jones Newswire (4/10, Shwiff), MarketWatch (4/10, Andrejczak), Air Transport Intelligence (4/10, Trimble), and Aviation Week (4/10, Mecham) also cover the story.
