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Boeing's now lost more than $2 billion on the new Air Force One planes – and has Donald Trump to blame

Oct 27, 2023, 22:21 IST
Business Insider
Boeing is building two new planes to replace the existing Air Force One fleet. Shutterstock
  • In the third quarter, Boeing lost another $482 million on the new Air Force One aircraft.
  • Losses now total more than $2 billion on the two planes.
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Boeing lost another $482 million on building two planes that will become the new Air Force One, according to its latest earnings report.

The company attributed the losses to higher-than-estimated manufacturing costs, engineering changes, labor instability, and negotiations with suppliers.

Boeing is under contract to replace the pair of 747-200B jumbo jets that transport the US President around the world.

Known as VC-25Bs, the new aircraft will be larger and more fuel efficient, allowing the US Air Force to save roughly $1.9 billion in operations and maintenance costs during the jets' 20- to 30-year lifespans.

But ongoing issues have brought Boeing's total losses to over $2 billion since construction began in 2018, and the company has pushed the delivery date of the two jets back by another two years to 2026, CNN reported.

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Donald Trump was personally involved in the negotiations with Boeing when he was in the White House and threatened to cancel the contract. His administration ultimately signed a fixed-price agreement that leaves Boeing liable for any cost overruns.

The cost of the project is now thought to be well over $5 billion. When the government last replaced Air Force One during the George H.W. Bush administration, the bill was $660 million, or about $1.45 billion today, the LA Times previously reported.

Last year, Dave Calhoun, the CEO of Boeing, admitted that signing the contract was a mistake.

"Air Force One I'm just going to call a very unique moment, a very unique negotiation, a very unique set of risks that Boeing probably shouldn't have taken, but we are where we are," he said on an earnings call.

But Calhoun struck a more positive tone on the latest call.

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Calhoun told Defense News that recovery in Boeing's Defense, Space, and Security division was "slower than I'd like." But he added that "we're confident in the future, and our path to normalizing BDS margin performance by that '25 and '26 time frame is intact."

Revenue rose by 13% to $18.1 billion, reflecting the delivery of 105 commercial aircraft, while the net loss narrowed from $3.3 billion to $1.6 billion.

The order backlog stands at $469 billion and includes more than 5,100 commercial airplanes.

Boeing did not immediately reply to a request for comment from Insider made outside normal working hours.

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