(New York) The American aircraft manufacturer Boeing announced on Wednesday a loss of $343 million in the first quarter, less wide than the market expected and marked by lower deliveries due to production problems and operating incidents .
“Financial results reflect lower 737 deliveries and the impact of grounding the 737-9,” Boeing said, referring to the Jan. 5 in-flight incident on an Alaska Airlines plane.
Between January and March, turnover reached 16.57 billion dollars (-7.5% year-on-year), exceeding analysts’ consensus forecasts (16.24 billion), which also expected a net loss much larger at 709 million.
Reported per share and excluding exceptional items – data favored by the markets – the net loss stands at $1.13, compared to a net loss of $1.27 over the same period of 2023.
The FactSet analyst consensus had forecast a net loss of $1.63.
This quarterly loss is hardly a surprise, financial director Brian West having warned on March 20 that the incident of January 5 – a cork holder came loose from the cabin in flight – would weigh down the quarterly results, in particularly the operating margin of the commercial aviation division.
According to him, this should be -20%. It actually stands at -24.6%, compared to -9.2% a year earlier.
In electronic trading before the opening of the New York Stock Exchange, Boeing shares rose 2.94%.