STEVE NICHOLS
All eyes will be on Boeing's Randy Baseler tomorrow as he unveils the company's new market outlook predictions.
They are likely to show that Boeing believes the overall market for air transport is recovering after the events of 11 September. It is also likely to predict that passenger levels could return to pre-September levels by the end of 2002.
"Asian traffic has recovered very quickly, Japan is looking a little better and the mood was confident at a recent Asian IATA meeting," says Baseler, Boeing's VP Marketing. "But North Atlantic traffic is bad and is not coming back."
Baseler says the market is a nervous one and further terrorist activity could see confidence (and traffic) nosedive yet again. That is a situation Boeing doesn't want to contemplate. It has already shed 26,000 of its 186,000 employee worldwide workforce since 11 September, and the figure is likely to grow to 30,000 by the end of 2002.
But Baseler is adamant. "All the events of 11 September did was accelerate what was going to happen anyway. Airlines have had to rethink their business model since deregulation and are driving their costs down. "We have taken 134 net orders this year, but it is physical deliveries that really count – that's when we get paid," says Baseler.
But if you really want to know how badly Boeing has been hit just look around the static park. ‘Spot the Boeing' will be a quick game this year as the only commercial aircraft likely to be here is a ‘Connexions by Boeing' 737.
Randy Baseler is pragmatic: "At a difficult time like this we have to concentrate on our core business. That is, delivering aircraft to our customers. We are working flat out to do just that and it would be inappropriate for us to bring aircraft to Farnborough that should be delivered to our customers – we owe it to our workforce," he says.
"These are difficult times, but recovery is there. Boeing's problem at the moment is that we are supplying a product to an industry that doesn't know how to make money."
Source: Flight Daily News
