Boeing reports its largest yearly loss

Boeing Co on Wednesday reported a net loss of $11.9 billion last year, the largest in the aircraft maker's history, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the crisis over its 737 MAX jet and a $6.5 billion charge on its new wide-body 777X jetliner, which the company now says it doesn't expect to deliver until late 2023, three years late.

Boeing's pretax charge on the 777X — the biggest piece of the fourth-quarter loss — was taken due to tougher certification requirements and demand assessments, among other things, the Chicago-based company said.

Boeing did get some good news earlier Wednesday as the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EUSA) said the MAX is safe to return to service, as it has in the US.

The EUSA mandated software upgrades, electrical rework, manual updates, crew training and more as a condition of the approval. The decision effectively lifts the nearly two-year ban on the aircraft in the EU, following two crashes that killed 346 people.

"Listen, 2020 was a year like no other. Our world, our industry, our business, and our communities were facing unprecedented challenges, and we're still in the midst of it," CEO David Calhoun said on a call with analysts. "The next six to nine months will remain very challenging for our airline customers and the entire industry.

"I'm sure glad 2020 is in the rearview mirror," he said, adding that "investors may have been surprised by the laundry list of charges" that the company revealed "but they don't cloud my view of the future, and the company's view of the future".

Calhoun said he expects the remaining non-US regulatory approvals for the 737 MAX will occur during the first half of 2021. He warned that long-haul international flights will be the last to recover, so demand for narrow-body jets like the 737 MAX will bounce back sooner than wide-body planes.

As for Boeing's prospects, they are "going to be driven by the rollout of the vaccine", said Jeff Windau, an analyst for Edward Jones. "When does the public start to feel comfortable getting back on planes? When do the airlines start to place more orders and start taking deliveries of planes?"

Shares of Boeing, a component in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, fell 4 percent to close Wednesday at $194.03. Boeing has been the worst performer in the Dow, having watched its shares drop 37 percent in the 12 months through Tuesday.

The Dow overall lost 633.87 points, or 2 percent, on Wednesday as Wall Street had its worst day since Oct 28.

While deliveries have resumed, Boeing has said it doesn't expect to increase MAX production to 31 per month until the beginning of 2022, later than a prior estimate of that level in 2021.

The company burned through $18.4 billion last year as aircraft deliveries were halved and doesn't expect to be cash-flow positive until next year.

The fourth-quarter charges included: $468 million for abnormal production costs with the MAX; $744 million on a settlement with the US Justice Department over the MAX; a $290 million charge for its Global Services unit, which provides spare parts and flight-operations support to airline customers, and $275 million for the Air Force's KC-46 tanker due to "production inefficiencies including impacts of COVID-19 disruption". The tanker has cost Boeing billions in cost overruns.

Boeing announced earlier this month that commercial aircraft deliveries fell 25 percent to 59 in the fourth quarter. For all of 2020, deliveries fell to 157 from 380 in 2019, and 806 in 2018. The company still has orders for more than 4,000 planes, but its backlog of deals shrank by a quarter to $282 billion.

With production of the 747 jumbo jet ending next year, the 777X will become Boeing's biggest plane.

The 777X seats up to about 400 passengers and has folding wings to fit into airport stands. Boeing has just 309 orders for the 777X, mostly from Middle East carriers such as Emirates airline that bought them at the height of the industry's boom several years ago. No US airlines have ordered the plane.

Heng Weili in New York and agencies contributed to this story.