Does Airbus have the cash to buy them out of bankruptcy court?

A Boeing plea deal intended to resolve a case related to two fatal crashes of its planes has been rejected by a US judge.
The plane maker agreed with the US government in July to plead guilty to one count of criminal fraud, face independent monitoring, and pay a $243m (£191m) fine.
However, Judge Reed O'Connor struck down the agreement on Thursday, saying it undermined the court and that diversity requirements for hiring the monitor were "contradictory".
Family members of the 346 people killed in the crashes welcomed the ruling, describing the plea deal as a "get-out-of-jail-free card for Boeing".
The Department of Justice said it was reviewing the decision. Boeing did not immediately comment.
In his decision, Judge O'Connor said the government's previous years of overseeing the firm had "failed".
"At this point, the public interest requires the Court to step in," he wrote.

"At this point, the public interest requires the Court to step in," he wrote.

That’s in addition to the 2,199 layoff notices Boeing delivered to Washington workers last month, bringing the total number of job cuts in the state to nearly 2,600.

The layoffs are part of a sweeping reduction in force at Boeing, which said in October it planned to trim its workforce by 10% in the coming months. With 170,000 employees, that would equal about 17,000 jobs. The 10% reduction will include attrition and only filling open positions for business-critical priorities, Boeing said.

When announcing the sweeping layoffs in October, CEO Kelly Ortberg told employees the business was in a “difficult position” and had to “make structural changes to ensure we can stay competitive.”

Note how the Bosses have no clue of what the real world job is...

With jet production now constrained by regulators and Boeing bleeding more than $4 billion in cash every three months [...]

[CEO] Ortberg must close the $8 billion acquisition of troubled supplier Spirit AeroSystems [...]

Maybe they're hoping to save money by doing away with pilots altogether - like this plane:

Plane takes off without pilot and flies out to sea

... Not only has it struggled to cope with a safety and quality control crisis, it has lost billions of dollars following a strike by workers that paralysed production at two of its biggest factories.

Even its space programme has been in trouble. Two astronauts were left stranded on the International Space Station in June... [And they are STILL stranded into 2025...]

... "People in Boeing don't believe in words from top management any more,"...

... Boeing's top bosses were accused by Republican Senator Josh Hawley of "strip-mining" the company for profit and cutting corners on safety in order to boost earnings...

... Since then, Boeing has appointed a new chief executive, Kelly Ortberg, who has pledged to "restore trust" in the business, overhaul its corporate culture and prioritise the safety of passengers. The company is also in the process of implementing a comprehensive safety and quality plan, which was launched earlier in the year.

But according to Mr Mohawk, who still works at Boeing, the drive to build planes as quickly as possible in order to maximise revenues remains. The accountants, he insists, are "100%" running the operation.

"Nothing has changed," says Mr Mohawk. "Our executives talk to the press and say, 'quality and safety is our number one priority'. But it's just the same."

Boeing rejects Mr Mohawk's claims...

... Arguably, the market needs Boeing to be healthy. It remains a huge company, employing more than 150,000 people directly, and countless more in supply chains around the world. It is a significant contributor to the US economy.

But some insiders argue that it now has a credibility problem...

... What had happened was deeply disturbing. A panel fitted over an unused emergency exit had not been bolted into place properly and had come away as the plane was climbing, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigated the incident. The passengers were still strapped in and no one was seriously hurt. But as investigators pointed out, it could have been much [much much] worse...

... In late 2018, an aircraft went down in the sea off the coast of Indonesia. Four months later another plane crashed minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. A total of 346 people were killed.

Both accidents were ultimately blamed on a poorly designed piece of flight control software. This had been fitted to address handling quirks on the new plane, and prevent pilots, who were used to earlier versions of the 737, from needing expensive retraining. In practice, it became active at the wrong time, and forced both aircraft into catastrophic dives...

... "Attention to share price and profit margins alone has proven to be a flawed strategy."

In the aftermath of those crashes, the 737 Max was grounded for 20 months ...

... A congressional report released in September 2020 found that Boeing's rush to build new aircraft as quickly as possible while cutting costs had "jeopardised the safety of the flying public"...

... included manufacturing defects affecting parts of fuselages, tail and rudder assemblies, as well as sealants applied as protection against the effect of lightning strikes in central fuel tanks...

... whistleblowers from within both companies, who had suggested that the pressure from Boeing to produce aircraft quickly, and ramp up production, had compromised safety on both the 737 and 787 programmes. The sudden deaths of two other whistleblowers – John Barnett, who had worked in Boeing's 787 factory in South Carolina, and Josh Dean, who had been employed by Spirit – generated further headlines in 2024...

... "Boeing has put profits and speed of production ahead of quality and safety, and ultimately, that failing is at the core of its current difficulties."...

... "It was obvious to them that the old management had basically screwed them. That was the sentiment. They were absolutely disgusted with how they had been treated in the old contract," he explains. The result was a bitter dispute...

... "The hardest thing to change in large companies is the mindset of people," says Mr Fehrm. "It takes time, and it needs to be manifested in actions, doing things differently. "There are changes coming, but people won't look at what the top management under Kelly Ortberg say. They will look for actions."...

No Boeing news?

Max 10 news? ...urgently awaited... 777-8/9 news? ... also awaited by airlines to retire their old A340, B747-400...

Late last year Airbus delivered the first A321neo XLR (PAX: max 244, typical: 185, range: 4,700 mi)

Icelandair, which never operated Airbus aircraft before, became an Airbus customer in July 2024 and received its first (leased) A321LR in December... What will airlines replace their aging 757s with?

Boeing news... urgently needed.

... A congressional report released in September 2020 found that Boeing's rush to build new aircraft as quickly as possible while cutting costs had "jeopardised the safety of the flying public"...

Is Boeing a too-fat leviathan that is simply no longer manageable or viable?

... a sea serpent demon noted in theology and mythology ... The Leviathan is often an embodiment of chaos, threatening to eat the damned ... incorporates the souls of those who are too attached to material things...