The American aircraft manufacturer Boeing has another problem with its model 777X, because the program has been delayed and on top of that, the company has received numerous cancellations. At the moment there are only 191 firm orders.

Boeing also assumes that further cancellations could follow due to the delay in 2023. In the meantime, every third order should no longer be completely fixed. Due to the accounting rules, the manufacturer had to delete those orders that are acutely endangered from the pipeline. That affected 38 percent of the order backlog.

In the course of the presentation of the deep red figures for the 2020 financial year, the aircraft manufacturer announced that the 777X program was expected to incur a special charge of around 6,5 billion US dollars, but a stock exchange release warned that the costs could be even higher. Customer cancellations and other problems with flight tests were explicitly named as risks.

Airlines could withdraw from contracts

The postponement by three years is also risky for the ailing group of companies for another reason: As a rule, the purchase contracts stipulate that a free withdrawal from the contract can take place in the event of a delay of at least one year. This is exactly what some airlines, which are already badly affected by the corona pandemic, could play into the cards, because deposits made would then have to be refunded.

Emirates Airlines seems to be losing interest in the Boeing 777X. The group is currently in talks with the manufacturer, which should result in a significant part of the order being converted into the smaller Boeing 787 model. In addition to the new 777X problems, the US manufacturer continues to have the disaster surrounding the 737-Max on its neck. In the meantime, more than 1.100 orders have been lost, and the trend is rising.