Boeing Returns to Profitability

One of the world’s largest aerospace giants, Boeing, has reported a very sharp increase in its fourth quarter revenues. The report shows that its revenues are up 42 percent to $17.9 billion. The good news for Boeing is that this is ahead of their forecasts.

This increase was a welcome sight to the stock market. Other experts even pointed out that the increase came despite the poor global economic climate. Even net income for the period was ahead of schedule at $1.27 billion. All of this is being compared with a loss of $86 million in the same period the previous year. However, a big part of that loss was due to a labor strike.

Boeing reported fourth quarter revenues of $9.2 billion. This is almost double that of what 2008 saw. For 2009 as a whole, Boeing’s revenues rose by 12 percent to $68.28 billion. However, their net income was only $1.31 billion. Once again the economic downturn has played a big factor in Boeing’s numbers, mostly due to the fact that airlines have had to cancel orders to make up for a lack of travel demand.

The chairman and chief executive of Boeing, Jim McNerney, said that they put a strong finish on 2009 by getting the 787 in the air. Boeing was also able to generate solid core operating performances across the company.

Despite this, the company went on to talk pessimistically for 2010. The Commercial Airplanes division of Boeing is expected to deliver between 460 and 465 planes for 2010. This is still down from the 481 delivered in 2009. These numbers do include the first few deliveries of the 787 and 747-8 planes, which are planned for the end of 2010.