Loser of 2024: Boeing

There were plenty of business losers in 2024, but only one for whom the sky was literally falling.

For the second time in half a decade, Boeing faced a worldwide grounding of its 737 MAX passenger plane after a mid-flight door blowout forced an emergency landing in January. Things only got worse from there. 

Clipped Wings

Boeing just can’t leave its past behind. A pair of fatal crashes that claimed 346 victims across five months in 2018 and 2019 cost the company tens of billions of dollars in fines, compensation, legal fees, and cancelled orders — concluding with a $2.5 billion settlement with the Department of Justice after the planemaker was charged with conspiracy to defraud Federal Aviation Administration safety inspectors. 

While Boeing’s entire MAX fleet was grounded for more than a year in that case, only a portion (737-9 MAX aircraft) were grounded this year. The Alaska Airlines incident wasn’t the last of Boeing’s nightmare fuel headlines. A tire fell from a jet shortly after taking off in San Francisco. A fiery engine malfunctioned over Texas. Rudder pedals became “stuck” after touching down in New Jersey. The FAA slapped Boeing with a three-month deadline to address serious quality control issues. And just this week, tragedy struck again as a 737-800 jet crashed in South Korea, killing 179 people.

By March, The New York Times got its hands on a leaked copy of the FAA’s audit of Boeing’s manufacturing process. And, well, aerophobes may seriously want to refrain from reading any further:

• In its report, the FAA found Boeing failed 33 of 89 specific audits, with the total instances of alleged non-compliance amounting to 97.
• Even more concerning were the instances in which workers used makeshift tools such as hotel room key cards and Dawn dish soap in their production process. We hope your holiday flying is over.

By the end of summer, Boeing faced another historic challenge: the first strike among its more than 30,000 Pacific Northwest-based machinists since 2008. The work stoppage lasted nearly two months, and concluded when workers won a 40% pay raise — well above Boeing’s initial 25% offer. Speaking of Boeing workers: Did we mention that not one but two former longtime employees-turned whistleblowers died this year while raising quality-control issues? 

Turbulence: Through the first three quarters of the year, Boeing lost around $7.7 billion — an amount expected to reach around $10 billion for all of 2024. Meanwhile, airlines were left reeling following the 737 MAX grounding earlier this year, all while backorders of Boeing planes stacked up. “This is not a 12-month issue. This is a two-decade issue,” United CEO Scott Kirby said about Boeing at an investor conference in March. In other words: When Boeing loses, well, so do the rest of us.