Shocked investors wipe $9 billion from crisis-hit Boeing

This comes just two months after Boeing said it expected to generate cash for the year in the low-single digit billions.

Mr West, speaking at a conference in New York, also said there would be no increase in airliner deliveries this quarter compared to the first three months of the year. .

He admitted that Boeing customers had been “frustrated and disappointed” by the production problems. “If you’re on the inside, you see progress,” he said, while adding that “everyone wants it to go faster.”

Boeing’s deliveries fell after the Federal Aviation Administration capped 737 Max construction rates at 38 planes per month in response to the Alaskan Airlines incident. The company has since reduced production well below that level as it seeks to correct production errors and regulators continue to investigate its processes.

Mr. West said Thursday that cash burn this quarter could be “a little worse” than the $3.9 billion Boeing spent in the first quarter, although he predicted last month that figure would improve .

He added that savings could be made in the second half to reduce cash outflows, but admitted “that might not make up for everything”. Mr West added: “The benefits, if we get it right, will be significant beyond 2025, and that is what we are aiming for. »

Mr. West said he was continuing buyout negotiations with Spirit AeroSystems, which supplies the Max fuselage, including the panel that exploded from the Alaska jet, which would give Boeing greater oversight of the planes’ production.

He said a deal on Spirit, created by Boeing in 2005, remained possible but that negotiations were complex. Spirit also supplies rival aircraft manufacturer Airbus, whose Belfast factory makes the wings for the European manufacturer’s A220 aircraft.