Boeing, the troubled aircraft maker, reported a minor bounce back in sales in February after orders ground essentially to a halt in January following the Alaska Airlines door plug incident. The company reported 15 commercial jet orders in the month, rebounding from just three jet orders in January. However, the company also had three canceled orders in January, resulting in zero net orders for that month, the worst month for sales in years.
Despite the improvement in sales, one of Boeing’s largest customers, Southwest, disclosed that it now expects its deliveries from Boeing to be down more than 40% from what it had planned to accept over the course of the year. This is due to ongoing safety and quality questions about Boeing’s production line raised by the door plug incident on a January 5 Alaska Air flight that left a gaping hole in the side of the plane. As a result, the total capacity of seats Southwest sells during the course of the year will be 1 percentage point less than it originally expected, the airline said.
Despite the challenges, Southwest CEO Bob Jordan signaled that the airline is not keen on adding planes from the other major airline manufacturer, Airbus, to its fleet. This decision would be a significant change for Southwest, which exclusively flies the Boeing 737 and became Boeing’s first customer for the jet’s latest generation, the Max, in 2011.
Southwest is making adjustments for the year. Jordan announced that the company is halting the hiring of pilots and flight attendants due to Boeing’s expectation to deliver far fewer planes to Southwest than expected this year. This move means that Southwest will hire about 50% fewer pilots and 60% fewer flight attendants than planned this year, and new hire classes for both types of employees will stop in April. After growth fueled by the post-pandemic air travel recovery, Jordan said Southwest now expects to end the year ‘solidly down’ in employee headcount.
Despite the delivery delays, Jordan emphasized that Southwest is playing the long game and will deal with the challenges for now. He urged Boeing to prioritize understanding and fixing the issues, stating, ‘We all need Boeing to be stronger two years from now, five years from now, ten years from now, and that takes precedent over delivery delays.’
United Airlines also announced that it would halt pilot hiring ‘due to co
