Boeing has set an industry target to deliver between 810 to 815 commercial aircraft in 2018 from the 763 it delivered in 2017.
Boeing Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Dennis Muilenburg, said this in a statement on Thursday.
According to him, the cyclical nature of commercial aircraft ordering has been mitigated by a more balanced base of airline customers in terms of business models.
Muilenburg said that there was also a greater balance between growth and replacement orders, adding that it had resulted in ‘more consistent, stable’ aircraft order stream than in the past.
“Airlines continue to report robust profits, and passenger traffic in 2017 grew more than seven per cent year-over-year (YOY) through November, and cargo traffic exceeded nine per cent growth through November.
“Boeing expects 5.5 per cent to six per cent YOY passenger traffic growth in 2018,” he said.
Muilenburg said Boeing Commercial Airplanes booked 414 net orders in the 2017 fourth quarter, taking its backlog to over 5,800 aircraft valued at 421 billion dollars, adding that it equates to seven years of production.
He said that deliveries were expected to be led again by 737s in 2018.
He added that Boeing moved to a 737 production rate of 47 per month in 2017, and planned to raise the monthly rate to 57 in 2019.
Boeing CEO said that production slots for the 737 were sold out into the early 2020s.
According to him, Boeing delivered the first 74 737 MAX 8s in 2017.
It included 44 in the fourth quarter and the MAX Programme backlog stood at more than 4,200 aircraft.
Muilenburg said more than 40 per cent of 737s to be produced in 2018 would be MAXs.
“Boeing Commercial Airplanes’ (BCA) 2017, revenue decreased two per cent YOY to 56.7 billion dollars, but the unit’s operating profit jumped to 5.4 billion dollars from two billion dollars in 2016.
BCA’s operating margin improved 6.2 percentage points YOY to 9.6 per cent and reached 11.5 per cent in the 2017 fourth quarter.
“Boeing’s overall revenue fell one per cent YOY in 2017, to 93.4 billion dollars.
“The company projects a rise in revenue to the 96 billion dollars to 98 billion dollars range in 2018, including 59.5 billion dollars to 60.5 billion dollars for the Commercial Airplanes unit.
“Boeing’s 2017 net profit rose by 67 per cent YOY to 8.2 billion dollars’’ he said. (NAN)
