Boeing Engineers Leave Struggling Planemaker For Space Companies: Report

Planemaker Boeing Co BA is reportedly witnessing an increased number of its engineers leaving for space companies.

What Happened: The average tenure of a Boeing engineer has dropped to 12.6 years from 16.4 years over the last decade, the Financial Times reported, citing data from the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, a union representing 12,000 Boeing engineers. As per union data, the tenure is shortening in every age bracket.

The departure of engineering talent could make it harder for the company to launch a new plane, the report noted, while adding that the struggling plane maker is serving as a good place for space companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin to poach talent from.

While rival space companies continue to aim big and develop new vehicles, Boeing is yet to announce a new plane, FT noted.

"Boeing is an airplane company and at the right time in the future, we need to develop a new airplane. But we have a lot of work to do before then," Ortberg said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call.

Boeing did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comment.

Why It Matters: Boeing has been struggling since the start of the year when a door panel flew off an Alaska Airlines jet manufactured by the company.

Later in the year, technical issues were identified with the Starliner spacecraft manufactured by the company, causing space agency NASA to opt out of bringing back the two astronauts who flew on Starliner to the International Space Station on the same spacecraft. The astronauts are now slated to return to Earth on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft no earlier than March.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said in October that Boeing would downsize its workforce by 10%. The layoff is expected to impact nearly 17,000 jobs. Ortberg then said that the layoffs are necessary to align with Boeing's financial reality and future recovery plans.

Price Action: Boeing shares closed up 0.6% at $180.38 on Thursday. The stock is down 28.4% year-to-date, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

Boeing has a consensus price target of $197.85 based on the ratings of 23 analysts tracked by Benzinga. The analysts have a consensus “buy” rating on the stock.

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