Boeing sees bigger Q1 cash burn as 737 output cut

Troubled US plane maker Boeing on Wednesday said it would burn more cash in the first quarter than expected as it slowed production of its 737 passenger model after a panel blew off an Alaska Airlines flight in January.

CFO Brian West said Boeing’s cash burn for the first three months of the year would be $4bn-$4.5bn “higher than we originally planned back in January.”

He added that the company would make fewer than the maximum 38 737 aircraft allowed each month under a Federal Aviation Administration imposed limit.

“We’re deliberately going to slow to get this right,” West told a Bank of America conference. “We are the ones who made the decision to constrain rates on the 737 program...And we’ll feel the impact of that over the next several months.”

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com