Boeing takes US$6.5b charge on new delay to 777X jet

[CHICAGO] Boeing pushed back the debut of its 777X jetliner and said it would absorb a US$6.5 billion pretax charge, citing the coronavirus pandemic and close regulatory scrutiny of its newest plane.

The first delivery of the behemoth 777X won't be until late 2023, three years behind the initial schedule, Boeing said in an earnings statement on Wednesday. Additional writedowns brought total charges to US$8.3 billion, with hits to the company's services division and a military tanker, to close out one of the worst years in th US planemaker's century-long history.

Boeing is working its way out of a grinding slump brought on as the pandemic worsened the financial pressures from the long grounding of the company's 737 MAX following two deadly crashes. Troubles have also been mounting for another critical jet programme, the 787 Dreamliner, while new strains of the coronavirus threaten to postpone a much-anticipated recovery in global travel.

"I'm sure glad 2020 is in the rear-view mirror," Boeing chief executive officer Dave Calhoun said in an interview on CNBC. While investors may have been surprised by the laundry list of charges that the company revealed, "they don't cloud my view of the future, and the company's view of the future."

"It's hard to see much upside here," Citigroup analyst Jonathan Raviv said in a note to clients. The results are "reminder that the Covid impacts are long-lasting and reflect the reality that aero is 'lower-for-longer.'"

Boeing declined to provide financial guidance for 2021, a contrast with suppliers such as General Electric and Raytheon Technologies, which offered forecasts when they reported earnings Tuesday.

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