Boeing’s Ends 2021 in the Red
Boeing finished 2021 with a $3.4 billion loss on revenues of $62.3 billion, its third straight year posting an annual loss. It has a backlog of 535 airplanes on order worth a total of $377 billion, led by its Dreamliner aircraft, which it hopes to actually deliver again some day.
Boeing reported a $4.2 billion Q4 loss, driven mainly by charges associated with its 787 program. The manufacturer was hit hard by issues with the Dreamliner, losing more than $5.5 billion over the last 15 months as it was unable to deliver planes to customers while it tried to fix manufacturing flaws. Boeing first disclosed the defects on the Dreamliner in 2020 but now says it’s making significant progress on fixing it and getting planes in the hands of operators as soon as possible.
Boeing President and CEO David Calhoun called 2021 a rebuilding year for the company as it increased B737 MAX deliveries, worked towards a solution on the Dreamliner, generated robust commercial orders — including record freighter sales — and acquired a host of draft picks for future years. It ended the year with more than $8 billion in cash and cash equivalents, up from $7.75 billion at the end of 2021.
European Traffic Down 1.5 Billion from 2019
Airports Council International Europe (ACI) reported European air travel increased by a third last year over 2020 but remained down by 59% – 1.5 billion total – from prior to the pandemic in 2019.
The three strongest performers in the EU were Greece, Romania, and Luxembourg which saw drops amongst the three between 45 and 54%. For Luxembourg, that was a devastating drop considering in 2019 only 2 people flew into the country, and it plunged to only 1 in 2021.
Finland was the country to suffer the largest drop, with more than 80% fewer passengers than 2019, followed closely by the UK which saw a 78% drop and the Czech Republic which suffered a 75% decrease.
Staying on the continent but outside of the EU, Russia saw a decline of just 24.4% thanks to strength in its domestic market. Moscow/SVO ranked as the second busiest airport in Europe last year, with Moscow/DME coming in fifth. Scattered between the two Moscow airports, Istanbul was the busiest in 2021, with Paris/CDG third and Amsterdam fourth.
BA Flight From Cape Town Shown the Door
British Airways was forced to cancel its Wednesday service from Cape Town back to London/Heathrow after the B777-200ER scheduled to operate the flight had its 2L door ripped off. The incident occurred sometime after arrival and passenger deplaning, but before the plane was moved to a remote stand.
While the exact reason the door was ripped off has not been released, it’s being reported that the plane was still parked and connected to a jet bridge with the cabin door open when a tug driver allegedly started to push the plane back.
The plane usually spends the day in Cape Town after arriving before returning to London each evening at 9:15p as BA42. BA attempted to salvage the flight by placing a plastic grocery bag over the empty door and securing it via duct tape, but ultimately decided to cancel and fix it properly once it heard someone from Mango with nothing else to do had tattled on the airline.
- Air Leap suspended its operation and taken the leap to enter reorganization.
- Air New Zealand added former United and Hertz exec Alex Marren as its new COO and Mike Williams as the Chief Transformation and Alliances Officer. Chances are if you put Hertz in charge of your operation, you will need a transformation to take place soon after to save the airline.
- Air Serbia plans to take delivery of its first ATR 72-600 tomorrow.
- AirAsia X announced a partnership with GEODIS to provide the carrier with additional cargo capacity.
- Aleutian Airways took delivery of a Saab 2000.
- Delta is returning hot meals to first class, ensuring the bland, mediocre meal you enjoy now burns your tongue instead of being at room temperature.
- El Al is asking its pilots union to lend it $3 million as part of a bailout package, sort of like when a parent asks its kid for an allowance.
- Emerald Airlines added three to its Board of Directors.
- Hawaiian‘s first B787 deliveries are now not expected until the first half of next year.
- Smartwings landed a B737 MAX in Antarctica today — the first MAX aircraft to land on the continent. What the airline didn’t tell you was that it was supposed to go to Budapest.
- Volotea is closing its base at Genoa.
A horse walked into a bar and the bartender said “hey.”
“Sounds good to me,” said the horse.