Boeing says its 14-day suspension of operations at its Puget Sound airplane factories, as well as at its maintenance site at Moses Lake in central Washington state, will be extended until further notice.
Tag: Boeing
The Air Force says it reached two agreements with Boeing today, aimed at making the final fixes in camera systems for Boeing-bult KC-46A Pegasus tankers and releasing $882 million in payments that were held back due to problems with the tankers.
Boeing CEO David Calhoun says the company is preparing a voluntary layoff program that’s aimed at reducing the need for “other workforce actions” as it deals with the economic repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a letter sent to employees, Calhoun said details about how the program works will be laid out in the next three to four weeks. Speaking on background, a Boeing official said several thousand employees are expected to take the voluntary layoff package or retire.
For the past year, Boeing has been struggling with the worldwide grounding of its 737 MAX passenger jets in the wake of two catastrophic crashes. The company was targeting the middle of this year to resolve all the safety issues and win the Federal Aviation Administration’s go-ahead to put the planes back into operation.
Then the pandemic hit. Last month, reports emerged about COVID-19 cases — and at least one death — among employees at Boeing’s production facilities in the Puget Sound region. Those facilities are now in the middle of a 14-day shutdown while Boeing conducts deep-cleaning operations at the plants and assesses the wider impact of the coronavirus outbreak.
Calhoun said Boeing was “doing everything possible to keep this team intact” during the pandemic.
“But one thing is already clear: It will take time for the aerospace industry to recover from the crisis. When the world emerges from the pandemic, the size of the commercial market and the types of products and services our customers want and need will likely be different. We will need to balance the supply and demand accordingly as the industry goes through the recovery process for years to come,” he told employees.
“It’s important we start adjusting to our new reality now,” he wrote.
The U.S. Navy has awarded Boeing a $1.5 billion production contract for the next 18 P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, buoying the company’s defense business.
Even as Boeing begins a 14-day production shutdown in the Puget Sound due to the coronavirus outbreak, the aerospace giant is in line for a financial booster shot, thanks to provisions in the $2 trillion relief package drawn up in the Senate.
Boeing’s stock ended the trading session with a 24% gain. Airline stocks rose as well, thanks to $50 billion in promised loans and grants for passenger airlines, and another $8 billion for cargo carriers.
The Senate bill, which hasn’t yet come up for a vote and could still undergo revision, doesn’t specifically call out Boeing. But it does set aside $17 billion in loans for businesses that are considered “critical to maintaining national security.” Sources told The Washington Post that this provision was meant to cover Boeing’s needs, although other companies could be eligible for some of that aid.
That $17 billion by itself doesn’t fully address Boeing’s request for $60 billion in assistance. Other sources of funding — public as well as private — could fill the gap.
In the wake of the first reported death of an employee in Puget Sound due to COVID-19, Boeing announced today that it’s begun the process of shutting down production operations at its facilities in the Seattle area.
A 14-day suspension is due to begin on March 25, Boeing said in a news release. The suspension will also apply to maintenance activities at Moses Lake, Wash., where more than 250 grounded 737 MAX planes are parked.
The company said the suspension would provide an opportunity to assess the impact of the “accelerating spread of the coronavirus in the region.”
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Boeing stops paying CEO amid pandemic
Boeing says its CEO and its chairman will forgo all pay until the end of the year — and that’s just one of the steps the company is taking to ensure that it weathers the financial effects of the coronavirus epidemic.
Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador who has been touted as a future presidential candidate, says she’s resigning from Boeing’s board of directors to protest the company’s request for $60 billion in federal aid.
Boeing has been hit hard by the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the aviation industry, as well as the continued grounding of the 737 MAX fleet in the wake of two fatal crashes. This week the company said it supports a minimum of $60 billion in access to private and public liquidity for the aerospace manufacturing industry.
In a letter sent to Boeing CEO David Calhoun and the board, Haley said she couldn’t go along with Boeing’s request.
“I cannot support a move to lean on the federal government for a stimulus or bailout that prioritizes our company over others and relies on taxpayers to guarantee our financial position,” she wrote. “I have long held strong convictions that this is not the role of government.”
For that reason, she said she was resigning from the board position that she’s held since last year.
NASA and Boeing officials say an independent review of December’s uncrewed test flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner space taxi has identified 61 corrective actions that will need to be taken.
Boeing has taken the wraps off its closely held design for the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft, a new type of helicopter that’s being proposed as a replacement for the U.S. Army’s now-retired Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warrior.