A Boeing 737 MAX jet.
Jason Redmond / AFP via Getty Images
The Indian aviation regulator has barred 90 pilots from flying Boeing 737 MAX jets due to concerns over the simulators used to train them.
Boeing (ticker: BA) shares were up about 3.5% in Wednesday trading. S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures had risen about 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively.
The stock isn’t reacting to the Indian news, which was reported earlier by Bloomberg, but investors’ antennae rise any time something happens with a MAX. The MAX was grounded worldwide between March 2019 and November 2020 following two deadly crashes within five months. One of the fixes that regulators required to bring the plane back to commercial service was more flight simulator training for pilots.
The simulator issue doesn’t appear to be a problem with the plane. And Boeing doesn’t make the simulators. They are made by CAE (CAE), whose stock was up 1.2%.
Coming into Wednesday trading, CAE stock was up about 1% year to date, while Boeing shares were down 12% year to date. Boeing investors continue to deal with Covid-19’s effects on travel as they wait for cash flow to improve.
Over the past month, U.S. air travel has been down about 10% compared with pre-pandemic 2019. Covid is still cutting into demand for travel, which affects demand for new jets.
What is more, Boeing burned through billions while the plane was grounded, building and parking hundreds of MAX jets, waiting for reauthorization to deliver them. The company is still working through its backlog of undelivered jets and ramping production back up.
Boeing delivered 95 jets in the first quarter of 2022, including 86 737-model planes. A year ago, Boeing delivered 77 planes, including 63 737-model jets. Back in the first quarter of 2020, when the MAX was still grounded, Boeing delivered 50 jets, including five 737s. (The MAX isn’t the only 737 jet Boeing sells.)
Boeing is due to report its full first-quarter results on April 27.
Write to Al Root at [email protected]
