MAX - Full stopp på bestillinger og trouble med aksjonærene - Curt Lewis

Airlines have completely stopped ordering the 737 Max New York (CNN Business)Airlines are holding off on orders for Boeing's 737 Max - the latest sign of how deeply the company's best-selling jet has been thrown into crisis. Boeing (BA) released data Tuesday that showed only 10 of the planes were ordered in the first two months of 2019. There were no orders in March, the month that a 737 Max jet flown by Ethiopian Airlines pilots crashed in that country, killing everyone aboard. It was the second fatal crash involving a Max in recent months. That small number compares to 112 orders for the plane in the first quarter of 2018. At that time, Southwest Airlines (LUV) had ordered 40 of the jets, while Ryanair ordered 25. Orders for Boeing's other commercial jets actually increased slightly. The company sold 85 other commercial jets last quarter, compared to 68 a year earlier. But the sales data for the Max gives the clearest picture yet of how much scrutiny of that model could be hurting Boeing's bottom line. Investigators are still probing the cause of the Ethiopian crash, as well as the other Max crash involving a Lion Air jet last October. The two accidents killed 346 people in all, and eventually prompted the grounding of all 737 Max planes last month. Boeing also halted deliveries and announced last week that it was scaling back production of the 737 Max. The focus of the crash investigations is the plane's automatic safety system, for which Boeing says it is developing a software fix. The fatal crashes are not the only cause of the sales drop, said Richard Aboulafia, aerospace analyst for the Teal Group. He attributed much of the change to the massive number of orders for the next generation of single-aisle jets that both Boeing and rival Airbus had previously booked. Airbus actually had worse first quarter orders for its A320, its 737 Max competitor. "This is the mother of all frontloaded markets," said Aboulafia. Boeing has orders for 5,000 of the 737 Max jets on its books already. So far only one airline, Indonesia's Garuda, has outright canceled an order for 50 of the 737 Max jets since the grounding. Boeing also said Tuesday that all 737 deliveries in the first quarter fell by a third, to 89 from 132 a year ago. But most of that drop was caused by the reduced production and delivery of the older version of the 737 jet that Boeing is still building for some customers. Deliveries of the the older 737 jets fell by 66% to 32. Deliveries of the 737 Max increased by 54% compared to a year ago to 57, even with a two-week halt. That's because Boeing spent most of 2017 ramping up production of the Max.

Boeing shareholders sue over 737 MAX crashes, disclosures FILE PHOTO: A Boeing 737 MAX 8 takes off during a flight test in Renton, Washington, January 29, 2016. REUTERS/Jason Redmond/File Photo (Reuters) - Boeing Co's legal troubles grew on Tuesday as a new lawsuit accused the company of defrauding shareholders by concealing safety deficiencies in its 737 MAX planes before two fatal crashes led to their worldwide grounding. The proposed class action filed in Chicago federal court seeks damages for alleged securities fraud violations, after Boeing's market value tumbled by $34 billion (£26 billion) within two weeks of the March 10 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX. Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg and Chief Financial Officer Gregory Smith were also named as defendants. Boeing spokesman Charles Bickers had no immediate comment. According to the complaint, Boeing "effectively put profitability and growth ahead of airplane safety and honesty" by rushing the 737 MAX to market to compete with Airbus SE, while leaving out "extra" or "optional" features designed to prevent the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air crashes. It also said Boeing's statements about its growth prospects and the 737 MAX were undermined by its alleged conflict of interest from retaining broad authority from federal regulators to assess the plane's safety. Richard Seeks, the lead plaintiff, said Boeing's compromises began to emerge after the Ethiopian Airlines crash killed all 157 onboard, five months after the Lion Air crash killed 189. Seeks said he bought 300 Boeing shares in early March, and sold them at a loss within the last two weeks. The lawsuit seeks damages for Boeing stock investors from Jan. 8 to March 21. Shareholders often file lawsuits accusing companies of securities fraud for concealing material negative information that causes the stock price to decline upon becoming public. Chicago-based Boeing faces many other lawsuits over the crashes, including by victims' families and by participants in its employee retirement plans. Boeing said on Tuesday that aircraft orders in the first quarter fell to 95 from 180 a year earlier, with no orders for the 737 MAX following the worldwide grounding. On April 5, it said it planned to cut monthly 737 production to 42 planes from 52, and was making progress on a 737 MAX software update to prevent further accidents. The case is Seeks v Boeing Co et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, No. 19-02394.