Boeing Chief Reaffirms Delivery Schedule
Joseph C. Anselmo janselmo@aviationweek.com 
Turbulence on Wall Street and in the global economy will not knock Boeing off its delivery schedule this year, a top company executive said Tuesday.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Scott Carson brushed aside speculation that the record backlogs at his company and Airbus could be vulnerable to large numbers of deferrals or cancellations in 2009 because of tight credit conditions and plummeting demand for air travel around the globe.
"We believe every one of the airplanes scheduled for delivery this year will be delivered," Carson said in an address to a J.P. Morgan conference in New York. He expressed confidence in the company's delivery schedule "well into 2010," but cautioned that next year will be "a bit more of a question, depending on the global economic conditions."
The company is stepping up to assist select deliveries for buyers whose financing has fallen through or become unaffordable. But Carson said any draw on its financing unit, Boeing Capital Corp., will be "minimal" in 2009.
Boeing has maintained an optimistic market outlook as the global economic crisis has steadily worsened in recent months. Carson stressed that while airlines in North America, Europe and Asia are slashing capacity they are still replacing older aircraft with new, more fuel efficient jets to protect against future spikes in oil prices. "We're seeing a lot of [fleet] renewal going on," he told the conference.
Boeing ended 2008 with a record backlog of 3,700 aircraft orders worth $279 billion. "While there's obviously challenges in the marketplace and in front of us as we deal with the economic uncertainty, we're playing from a position of strength," Carson said.
But some industry veterans and analysts are questioning whether a sizeable portion of that backlog is vulnerable to deferrals or cancellations. IATA Director General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani is expecting sharply lower deliveries of large jets over the next two years. And Teal Group analyst Richard Aboulafia estimates that anywhere from 30-70% of the backlogs at Boeing and Airbus are vulnerable to deferrals.
Aboulafia says the economic crisis has created so much uncertainty that estimates about its impact on the aircraft industry are largely guesses. "There are absolutely no useful indicators at this point," he says. "There are just too many uncertainties."
Carson conceded that Boeing is not immune from the impact of an unprecedented crisis that has pummeled major economies around the globe almost simultaneously. He said the company's decision in January to cut 4,500 jobs - mostly administrative and contract workers - is the first step in positioning the company for the potential onset of leaner times.
Artist's concept: Boeing
