Chief executive officer of Boeing, one of the world’s largest aerospace manufacturers, has expressed his confidence that no matter what the results of the elections are, the defense industry will be supported by the government. This came as the company reported losing $2.4 billion.
Whoever sits in White House
With the national elections only a few months away, on Wednesday CEO Dave Calhoun stated on a media call: “I think both candidates, at least in my view, appear globally oriented and interested in the defense of our country and I believe they’ll support the industries.”
The Boeing head further added that despite different approaches of the two parties, “I don’t think we’re going to take a position on one being better than the other.”
#Boeing CEO Confident in Military Spending No Matter Who Wins November Election
Defense spending a priority for both front-runnershttps://t.co/1mQjSb5U7J pic.twitter.com/rn3uXaDaG6— Antiwar.com (@Antiwarcom) July 30, 2020
Struggle to survive
Defense is another hopeful line of business for Boeing as it was reported that the company has lost $2.4 billion on the last quarter. Calhoun then mentioned that with the continuing blow of the pandemic to Boeing, the company will look into the size of their workforce. This means more job losses on top of the previously announced 16,000 which was 10 percent of all their employees. Their revenue declined by 25 percent. Though the company’s stock was little up on pre-market, but then fell by 4 percent.
Boeing is also contemplating on whether shutting one of the two factories that manufacture the 787 aircraft. The company will also cease in making the cargo-carrying version of the massive 747 model in 2022. They also delayed the comeback of their most popular model, 737 Max, which was not allowed to fly following two crashes that took away 346 lives. The company revealed they pushed back till 2022 their production of some 31 jets of that type.
Blow to revenue sources
Furthermore, Calhoun also estimated that it could take three years before they could reach the volume of passengers from 2019. “The reality is the pandemic’s impact on the aviation sector continues to be severe,” the Boeing CEO said.
Boeing has also disclosed previously that they were able to deliver only 20 commercial planes, the lowest for the company in a single quarter since 1977. Just last month, 60 orders from the company were canceled, on top of other hundreds of cancellations from the preceding months since the pandemic began.
