Breakingviews - Breakingviews: Boeing loses when it has everything to gain

Robert Cyran - Reuters - 09/01
It’s hard to imagine a business with bigger walls protecting it than Boeing . The $138 billion plane manufacturer dominates, along with rival Airbus , the commercial plane market. Yet repeated issues, such as the grounding of Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes following a blowout of a panel on an Alaska Airlines jet on Jan. 5, are undermining Boeing’s reputation and, worse, its finances.

NEW YORK, Jan 8 (Reuters Breakingviews) - It’s hard to imagine a business with bigger walls protecting it than Boeing (BA.N). The $138 billion plane manufacturer dominates, along with rival Airbus (AIR.PA), the commercial plane market. Yet repeated issues, such as the grounding of Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes following a blowout of a panel on an Alaska Airlines jet on Jan. 5, are undermining Boeing’s reputation and, worse, its finances.

Airplane manufacturing is a capital-intensive business that requires specialized engineering skills and has strategic importance to the U.S. government. The commercial market has and will continue to grow faster than global gross domestic product, according to Boeing. Both it and Airbus have manufacturing capacity booked for years. Customers are reluctant to defect too, as they would have to wait years for new jets and switching can mean increased operational expense from running multiple type...
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