general

The Boeing 737 Max crisis is a tragedy that has cost 346 lives. On Tuesday, investors will start to find out what it means for Boeing's bottom line. Boeing is set to report the number of planes it delivered during the quarter. The company didn't deliver any of its bestselling 737 Max planes in the last two weeks of the quarter, because it halted those deliveries following the global grounding of the 737 Max planes on March 13. Investors will be waiting to see if Boeing forecasts the costs of the grounding and halt of deliveries. Boeing doesn't normally give any dollar figures as part of its deliveries report, but this is not a normal time. It is one of the greatest crises in the company's history. Boeing is scheduled to report Q1 results on April 24, and then meet with shareholders April 29. But Tuesday's report is an early look at the financial costs of its 737 problem. The company could also provide some details on whether the grounding hurt orders for the plane, although the Q1 report generally focuses only on deliveries, not orders. So far only one airline, Indonesia's Garuda, has disclosed that it has cancelled an order for 50 of the jets. Although that order was worth $4.9b, it's a fraction of the backlog of 5,000 737 Max orders that Boeing has on its books. The 737 problem will extend far beyond Q1 results. "The 737 delay could last longer than previously expected," wrote Bank of America analyst Ronald Epstein in a note to investors Monday, in which he downgraded his recommendation on the stock. Epstein estimates the disruption to Boeing's business could last between six and nine months. He had previously forecast three to six months of disruption. He said he now predicts it will take Boeing until 2021 to catch up on promised aircraft deliveries.<br/>

Boeing is now unlikely to deliver more than 500 of its 737 MAX planes to customers this year, and even that will depend on a swift removal of an effective halt in deliveries after June, Wall Street analysts said Monday. Deliveries of Boeing's best-selling aircraft have been frozen by a global grounding of the jet following the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines flight on March 10, which killed all 157 people onboard. The company's delivery numbers for March are due to be published on Tuesday and are expected to show customers took less than half of a previous consensus estimate of 46 planes as the groundings prevented flights. An estimate for March last week from another brokerage, Baird, was as low as 19 planes. Yet Wall Street has been slow to draw conclusions about what that means for how many 737 MAX aircraft Boeing will deliver to customers this year and how many it will have to keep on its own books-even after announcing on Friday it will cut production by 10 planes a month or roughly 20%. Of five well-known brokerages that produce estimates for Boeing's full-year numbers, Cowen and Jefferies cut their 2019 delivery forecast following Boeing's decision to lower production. Cowen now expects full-year deliveries of "around 500", down from its earlier forecast of 630 737 MAX jets. Jefferies expects Boeing to deliver 497 737 MAX planes, down from 580.<br/>

More families of victims of the Lion Air crash in Indonesia are suing Boeing after its CE apologised and said a software update for the MAX 8 jet would prevent further disasters. Family members and lawyers said Monday that CEO Dennis Muilenburg's comment last week related to an automated flight system was an admission that helps their cases. The anti-stall system is suspected as a cause of the Lion Air crash in October and an Ethiopian Airlines crash in March that also involved a MAX 8 jet. The two crashes killed a total of 346 people. Preliminary reports into both crashes found that faulty sensor readings erroneously triggered the anti-stall system that pushed the plane's nose down. Pilots of each plane struggled in vain to regain control. Families of 11 Lion Air victims said at a news conference organised by Jakarta law firm Kailimang & Ponto that they are joining dozens of other Indonesian families in filing lawsuits against Boeing. "Boeing's CEO explicitly apologized to 346 passenger families," said Merdian Agustin, whose husband died in the crash. "We hope this is good momentum to have compensation rights."<br/>

China Aircraft Leasing Group Holdings Tuesday said it has not put its order for 100 Boeing Co 737 MAX jets on hold, rebutting an earlier report by the South China Morning Post. The SCMP attributed its information to comments from CALC Chairman Chen Shuang. The Hong Kong-listed lessor said Chen was misquoted. More than 300 Boeing 737 MAX jets have been grounded worldwide after nearly 350 people died in crashes in Indonesia in October and in Ethiopia last month. Boeing has also frozen deliveries of the 737 MAX planes as aviation authorities investigate the causes behind both disasters, with the company so far saying that an erroneous activation of so-called MCAS anti-stall software was “a common link” between the two. The Hong Kong-based newspaper later on Tuesday updated its story to quote CALC CE Mike Poon as saying the company had not stopped payment, but as deliveries were on hold, it did not need to make any payment for the time being. A spokeswoman for CALC told Reuters that Poon was referring to Boeing’s overall suspension of deliveries to airlines. “Our company currently does not have plans to change our Boeing aircraft orders,” she said.<br/>

The office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) said the World Trade Organization (WTO) had repeatedly found that EU subsidies to Airbus have caused adverse effects to the United States. “This case has been in litigation for 14 years, and the time has come for action,” said US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. “Our ultimate goal is to reach an agreement with the EU to end all WTO-inconsistent subsidies to large civil aircraft. When the EU ends these harmful subsidies, the additional US duties imposed in response can be lifted.” The statement added that the final amount it would seek in duties was subject to arbitration at the WTO, the result of which was expected this summer. The USTR’s preliminary list extends to 14 pages and contains a number of products in the civil aviation sector, including Airbus aircraft.<br/>