CHICAGO - Boeing Co. said it might slow or halt production of its 737 MAX jetliner if regulators don’t approve its return to service by the end of this year. The warning came as the aerospace giant on Wednesday reported its biggest quarterly loss to date, after taking an initial $7 billion hit on the grounding and slowed production of the MAX, according to Doug Cameron and Andrew Tangel of the Wall Street Journal.
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July 25, 2019-According to the Journal article, Boeing turned a profit of nearly $1 billion in its defense unit, but the ongoing grounding of the 737 MAX line contributed to a $4.95 billion operating loss for the quarter in its commercial planes unit.
Boeing made waves at the Paris Air Show earlier this summer when International Airlines Group (IAG) and Boeing have announced that IAG planned to purchase 200 MAX jets. With no firm time table to the MAX jets being cleared for takeoff following a pair of deadly crashes in late 2018 and early 2019, Boeing warned it my slow or temporarily stop production.
“We might need to consider possible further rate reductions or other options including a temporary shutdown of the MAX production,” Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said on a call with analysts.
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Jamie Whitney, Associate Editor
Intelligent Aerospace
