Boeing adds 95 orders

Published 11:53 am Thursday, December 6, 2007

The Boeing Co. turned in another good week in sales, adding 95 new orders to its record backlog. The company has logged 1,144 net orders in 2007. With three years of 1,000-plus orders, it’s sometimes difficult to keep the orders blitz in perspective.

Here are a few facts to keep in mind:

314: That’s the number of orders Boeing’s 787 has picked up so far this year. It’s also the same number of orders all six models of Boeing commercial jets won in 2001.

95: The amount of orders Boeing last week is roughly one-third of the total orders Boeing received in all of 2004.

1,144: Take Boeing’s year-to-date net orders and subtract 53. What do you get? That’s the total (1,091) number of commercial jet requests Boeing won in 2001 (314), 2002 (251), 2003 (249) and 2004 (277) combined.

The craziness can’t last much longer, according to a story out this morning. Slowing economic growth has yet to catch up to air traffic despite a historic tie between the two.

“I would expect corporate travel to be negatively impacted by the global credit crisis insofar as the crisis leads to job losses and reduced activity in the financial sector,” Robert Cullemore, a senior associate at U.K. aerospace consultancy Aviation Economics told MarketWatch.

Cullemore says the lag may continue until spring or summer of 2008. A slowdown in corporate travel isn’t good for flag carriers. Credit Suisse notes that lease rates, particularly of Boeing’s 767, remain strong.

In a related note, Credit Suisse said on Thursday that Boeing’s stock is “uniquely positioned to benefit from the multi year secular growth in commercial aerospace.” The brokerage sees Boeing’s Dec. 11 update on its new 787 Dreamliner as a potential catalyst for shares, reports MarketWatch.

Read my story about other how other analysts view Boeing’s Dec. 11 update on its 787.