Tuesday's Market Minute: Boeing 777 Grounded

Boeing Co BA saw another major issue with an aircraft over the weekend when an engine in one of its 777 models exploded over Denver. Thankfully, there were no injuries. The FAA said it had already been investigating the type of Pratt & Whitney engine used in that model, since a similar failure happened in Japan last December.

Boeing’s 737 model was grounded for over a year after the tragic crashes in March 2019, and Boeing has advised suspending the 777 models with the same engine type. Airlines in the U.S., Japan, and South Korea have grounded it, and the U.K. banned it from flying into its airspace.

However, Boeing still saw a green candle in yesterday’s trading, ending the day positive. The company’s problems are clearly bigger than the 737, but the company has few alternatives. While much was made of order loss during the 737 grounding, its greatest rival, Airbus, reported its January 2021 backlog at 7,163 aircraft.

Business will come back to Boeing because it has to, barring a major shift in policy against the company.

Photo by Jp Valery on Unsplash