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Reuters
The crisis in which the world aviation industry found itself has already affected the aircraft industry.
The coronavirus pandemic had a direct effect on the production of aviation equipment – companies were forced to stop production due to the need to rebuild it already taking into account new hygiene requirements.
These requirements include not only the reorganization of production, but also the disinfection of workplaces, and aviation production covers quite large areas.
In addition, if at least one sick person appears in the company’s staff, all those who contact him are automatically sent to quarantine.
The pandemic also manifested itself indirectly – due to a sharp reduction in air travel, aircraft manufacturers revised plans for the development of the fleet and for the receipt of new aircraft.
Another indirect factor is the fall in oil prices. High prices were one of the most important factors influencing the development of aircraft – the emergence of a new generation of Airbus A-320NEO and Boeing 737MAX, for example, was due to the creation of new more economical engines.
Now, according to some experts, after a sharp drop in oil prices and a reduction in the global fleet, the need for the latest, more economical aircraft is no longer so acute.
The result of all these factors was that aircraft manufacturing corporations were forced to revise aircraft production plans.
As Oleg Panteleev, head of the analytical service of the Aviaport agency, told the BBC, it is now important for the aviation industry to bring the real pace of aircraft production to market needs.
“At a tremendous pace, global aircraft manufacturers incur large costs. When canceling orders, postponing delivery dates for the future, and drastically lowering the cost of aircraft in the secondary market — for all negative factors, something needs to be done to close this cash gap “the expert said.
And the chief editor of the Avia.ru portal, Roman Gusarov, noted that not only the coronavirus and its economic consequences, but also the general state of the world economy, which affected the overproduction of aircraft, are to blame for the current crisis.
According to him, the pace of production of aircraft of the European Airbus Corporation exceeded the pace of sales in 2019: “And they already indicated then, hinted that they were ready to reduce the pace of production, and all this was before the coronavirus.”
Boeing
Boeing, an American aircraft manufacturing corporation that found itself in a deep crisis a year ago due to two catastrophes of passenger airliners — both due to aircraft design errors — and the shutdown of the 737MAX airliner delivery program, was forced to temporarily stop aircraft production at its facilities in the Seattle area already because of the coronavirus.
The factories of the corporation began to stop for two weeks on Wednesday, March 25. Boeing transferred part of the employees to remote work, and part sent on paid leave.
This has already led to a reduction in the production of not only airliners, but also the disruption of military orders – these plants produce the P-8 Poseidon anti-submarine aircraft, created on the basis of the 737-800 airliner, and KC-46A – a refueling aircraft, the basis of which is the 767 airliner .
The production of military aircraft stalled due to problems during the construction of gliders, which serve as the basis for both civilian and military vehicles.
The corporation needs a two-week break to rebuild production and disinfect all production facilities.
Last week, Boeing also announced the suspension of dividend payments, and announced the termination of payment of salaries by the end of the year to the CEO and chairman of the board of directors.
True, Boeing has had good news recently – it became known a few days ago that the corporation plans to resume production of 737MAX aircraft by May, which was stopped until the end of the new certification of these aircraft after two air crashes.
According to a Reuters source, the company asked some suppliers to be ready to start shipping parts for the 737MAX in April.
On March 17, US President Donald Trump said that Boeing should receive financial support from the state to deal with the “coronavirus” crisis, which worsened the company’s position.
And before that, the corporation stated that the US aerospace industry needs $ 30 billion, without specifying, however, how many of them are needed directly by it.
Russian aviation experts interviewed by the Russian BBC service believe that Boeing is likely to receive government support that will minimize losses.
Moreover, this will not necessarily be related to the civil aircraft industry – Boeing may receive state support, for example, in the production of military equipment.
Airbus
Boeing’s main competitor in civilian aircraft manufacturing, Europe’s Airbus Corporation, which suspended production in Spain and France last week, resumed it four days later, on Monday, reorganizing production to meet new sanitary requirements in the context of the coronavirus pandemic.
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However, at the same time, it reduced the production of wings for its aircraft in Germany and the UK by three weeks. The plants do not close and production will not be completely stopped, but will be reduced only to the level of urgent deliveries to assembly plants.
Airbus planned to increase the supply of aircraft from the 863th in 2019 to 880th in 2020. But now the company is reviewing its strategy, and this applies not only to production, but also to finance.
The corporation announced that it had already enlisted the support of the board of directors to receive loans worth 15 billion euros in addition to existing loan commitments of 3 billion.
In addition, Airbus is going to refuse to pay dividends for 2019 for a total amount of about 1.4 billion euros, as well as to suspend payments to the pension fund.
At the same time, Airbus says that they have already revised their forecast for 2020 and have developed measures to minimize the need for cash in case the situation worsens.
Rest
Embraer, a Brazilian aircraft manufacturing corporation that is currently completing a deal with Boeing (the two corporations are setting up a joint venture to produce regional aircraft, where Americans will have 80%), has suspended production of aircraft in Brazil, sending all employees who are not critical to the company on vacation.
On March 26, Embraer said net losses for the fourth quarter of 2019 amounted to $ 209.8 million. Embraer has not yet reported on losses in 2020, but has already promised to revise forecasts for 2020.
Canadian business jet maker Bombardier has suspended production of aircraft, according to Reuters.
Longview Aviation Capital Corp., which owns aircraft manufacturers De Havilland Canada and Viking Air Limited, also announced the shutdown.
The corporation produces Dash 8-400 aircraft, a very popular regional turboprop airliner that was developed by Bombardier and which at one time planned to be produced in Russia.
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The corporation will also suspend the production of small twin-engine passenger aircraft DHC-6 Twin Otter.
Canadian factories of the corporation will be stopped as a result of a drop in demand for aircraft, which, in turn, is due to the crisis of air travel due to coronavirus.
Russian aircraft manufacturers have not yet reported on how the coronavirus pandemic affected their work.
Meanwhile, according to Oleg Panteleev, the situation of Russian, as well as Chinese aircraft manufacturing companies is not so difficult due to the low sales volume of civil aircraft, as well as due to the fact that in many cases production is still unfolding, and the costs were not so great .
“If by the time the market starts to recover, Russian and Chinese manufacturers will be able to certify their promising aircraft and launch serial production, well, and if they can circumvent additional sanctions, then this will obviously be the best time to enter the market with new products. The competitors, incurring huge costs, will be shackled hand and foot in the possibility of dumping, “he said.
Roman Gusarov, believes that the state of Russian aircraft manufacturers largely depends on the state of the Russian economy, and especially the budget.
“The MS-21 project, as we know, is at the development financing stage, and the wide-body Russian-Chinese aircraft is also at an early stage, but also the financing. Even the“ Superjets ”that are delivered to customers are all the same, part of the money comes from the budget And that’s why everything here will depend more not on the state of the airlines, but on the state of the Russian budget, “he said.
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