CEO Dennis Muilenburg Says Customers Are Committed To Their Airplanes

Order deferrals at Boeing are at historic lows, according to company CEO Dennis Muilenburg.

Leeham News and Comment reports that Muilenburg said at a presentation Thursday that deferral requests account for only 2 percent of the company's backlog of nearly 6,000 airplanes. The historic rate is about 6 percent, Muilenburg said.

But Muilenburg (pictured) also said that the planemaker is still facing challenges making the transition from the classic 777 to the new 777X, even after reducing production rates. Currently, Boeing is producing seven Triple-7s per month, and that rate is expected to drop to five airplanes per month in August. Deliveries in 2018 to 2019 are expected to be 3.5 airplanes per month as the 777X is introduced into the line.

Muilenburg said that the 80-airplane order from Iran has not yet been placed on the order book. He said that while airlines are ordering a lot of narrow-body airplanes, the demand for wide-bodies won't recover until early in 2020.

Finally, Muilenburg said that Boeing is continuing to study what he called a "Middle of the Market" strategy that will include the 737-10. He also said that a clean-sheet design that is widely seen as an aircraft about the size of a 767 will not detract from sales of the Dreamliner family.

(Image from file)

FMI: www.boeing.com