SEATTLE – The Boeing Co. will deliver eight fewer widebody jets to buyers next year than previously anticipated, says Alan R. Mulally, head of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
Boeing still expects to deliver 275 to 300 commercial jets in 2003, but more will be 737s, a smaller twin-engine model with list prices of $40 million to $70 million, Mulally said Wednesday at an annual briefing for investment analysts in St. Louis.
The forecast for this year remains 380 planes, Mulally said.
“Everything we know says that the range for 2003 is 275 to 300,” he said. “We’ve taken eight (widebody) airplanes out of that plan, but we still have some more insight about upward pressure on the ’37s.”
Mulally and Michael M. Sears, Boeing’s chief financial officer, would not specify what widebody models would be cut, but analysts said the impact would be chiefly on the four-engine 747 jumbojet, which is listed at $180 million to $215 million.
“I can say with a high degree of certainty a majority of those are 747s,” said Peter Jacobs, an aerospace analyst with Ragen MacKenzie. He said the shortfall largely reflects anticipated orders that have failed to materialize.
Boeing’s other widebody models are the 767 and 777.
Company officials said the falloff in widebody production has not changed Boeing’s plan to cut a total of 30,000 jobs in Mulally’s division.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.