Boeing aircraft can be described as a well-known international commercial aircraft company, and it is one of the business cards of the United States. However, in recent years, Boeing aircraft has suffered from a series of turmoil such as parts design defects and quality inspection problems, and Boeing's poor market performance has made its orders of up to 30 billion US dollars snatched away by the mainland, and Boeing is completely dumbfounded!
Boeing's market value has shrunk by more than 400 billion yuan in recent years, and the future development prospects are very bleak!
So what is the reason that the former leading commercial aircraft company is in the predicament it is today, and is it possible for Boeing to make a comeback in the future?
History of the Boeing Company
With more than 100 years of history, Boeing is a living fossil in the global aircraft market. What is little known is that in the early days of Boeing's construction, it was not favored by the world, and was even considered a petty fight by a certain second ancestor.
So in the century-long development of Boeing aircraft, how did it achieve economic benefits, and how did it fall into today's embarrassing situation?
The Boeing Company was founded in 1916 by William Edward Boeing on the shores of Lake Union in Seattle. Wilhelm Boeing was born into a family of immigrants from Germany, and his family was well-to-do and pampered since childhood.
For William Boeing, he has had an aviation dream since he was a child, eager to fly freely at an altitude of 10,000 meters. As an adult, William Boeing refused to inherit the family inheritance and resolutely embarked on the path of entrepreneurship.
William Boeing had a remarkable business flair, and at the age of 33, he was already a well-known millionaire.
William Boeing, who became famous, began to pursue his dream and established a shipyard to conduct independent research and development of engines and other parts.
With the outbreak of World War I, fierce air battles broke out between Britain and Germany, which in turn led to an unprecedented emphasis on aircraft in countries around the world. The United States has even come up with financial subsidies to subsidize private aircraft companies.
The introduction of this policy made William Boeing realize that the opportunity had come. So he invested all his money, built hangars, built runways that simulated aircraft take-off and landing, and produced Boeing's first airplane.
Since the successful test flight of Boeing's first aircraft in 1916, Boeing's development has quickly entered the fast lane.
Due to the background of the times at that time, there was a strong demand for material transportation aircraft and cargo aircraft in various countries, and Boeing aircraft developed rapidly.
Boeing seized the opportunity of historical development, became a leading enterprise in the American aircraft manufacturing industry, and participated in the formulation of rules for the modern aviation system, monopolized a large number of international routes, and made a lot of money from it, and was once the most profitable airline in the world.
But just when Boeing was gaining momentum, an accident suddenly happened, and Boeing was discredited and its market share was greatly reduced.
As the world's largest commercial aircraft manufacturer, Boeing sells its aircraft to markets all over the world.
In 2014, Malaysian flight MH370 went missing, which is the biggest mystery in the history of global aviation. All 239 people on board were killed, and the aircraft type was a Boeing 777 passenger plane produced by Boeing.
Among the passengers who lost contact with Malaysia Airlines this time, there were a large number of Chinese passengers, and the whole mainland grieved. The Malaysia Airlines disappearance has brought Boeing's reputation to a freezing point, and countries around the world have doubts about the safety of Boeing's airliners.
Coincidentally, in 2018, at Jakarta's Hatta International Airport, Flight 610 took off smoothly, but I never expected that danger was gradually approaching!
Thirteen minutes after the plane took off, it was already near Guawa Island. Captain Buhaye suddenly felt that something was wrong with the plane, and it became difficult to maneuver, and the plane's flight trajectory took a sharp turn and crashed quickly.
The crash killed all 189 people on board, and the plane involved was a 737 MAX 8 model produced by Boeing. The crash has caused countries around the world to once again question the safety of Boeing's aircraft.
The occurrence of the two air crashes undoubtedly greatly reduced Boeing's reputation, and countries around the world have reduced Boeing's commercial aircraft orders, and Boeing's road to sinking has begun.
Since entering 2024, Boeing's revenue and stock price have hit a new low. During the May Day period, 30 billion US dollars of orders were seized by the mainland, and Boeing's market value evaporated by more than 400 billion.
China snatched $30 billion from Boeing
The Malaysia Airlines MH370 tragedy caused by an unknown failure of a Boeing passenger plane has gradually made the mainland realize that only when the country has the ability to produce high-end commercial aircraft can the personal safety of mainland passengers be guaranteed.
In the past decade, China's commercial aircraft technology has been continuously improved, and its market share has been increasing.
During the May Day period, China Southern Airlines purchased more than 100 C919 passenger planes from COMAC, and the order price of each C919 was as high as 100 million US dollars, which indicates that the original 30 billion US dollars order belonging to Boeing has disappeared!
In addition, Boeing has also been frequently investigated by the NASA because of its poor market performance in recent years.
After the outbreak of the two air crashes, Boeing did not even rectify and improve the quality of products, but continued to expose various scandals. This includes, but is not limited to, the sudden fall off of the cabin door during flight, radar failure during takeoff, collision with other passenger aircraft, and so on.
Even when U.S. Secretary of State Blinken was flying on a Boeing plane, the Boeing 737 suddenly had an oxygen leak, which almost caused Blinken to suffer a personal accident and had to urgently replace the plane.
Boeing's poor market performance in recent years led to a decline in its stock price in early May, with a decline of 0.8% and a market value of more than 400 billion yuan!
In addition to Boeing's poor market performance in recent years, the excellent performance of the continental C919 is also an important reason for China Southern Airlines to make a choice.
C919 is the embodiment of the excellent technical capabilities of the mainland manufacturing industry, with a total length of 38.9 meters, an empty weight of 45.7 tons, a deadweight of 18.9 tons, and a maximum of 190 passengers. C919 adopts the most advanced turbofan engine in the world, and its performance is also among the best in the world.
And what is even more valuable is that the C919 not only has excellent performance, but also has an advantage over Western airliners in terms of price.
The price of C919 is only 653 million yuan, which is equivalent to 99 million US dollars, which is an advantage compared with competing models of Boeing and Airbus in the West.
The reason why China's C919 can achieve such an excellent cost performance is mainly due to the relatively low labor cost in the mainland and the advantages of a complete manufacturing industry chain.
And in order to help C919 rapidly expand the market and occupy market share, the mainland has adopted financial subsidies for the purchase of C919, which is also an important reason for the full cost performance of C919.
China's C919 prosperity is in stark contrast to Boeing's current embarrassing situation, so does this mean a disruptive change in the future of global commercial airliners? How will the global commercial airliner market develop in the future?
Prospects for the future development of global commercial airliners
Will the rise of China's C919 passenger aircraft replace Boeing's market share in all aspects in the future?
It's too early to say that. Boeing is now like a "skinny camel bigger than a horse", and its complete industrial chain of commercial airliners and its century-long market operation cannot be replaced in the short term.
As one of the world's largest manufacturers of commercial airliners, Boeing's products cover all aspects of commercial airliners, and although it is currently in a crisis of public opinion and facing an investigation by the US National Aviation Administration, it still has many partners.
In addition, in addition to the production and sales of commercial airliners, Boeing is also the world's largest manufacturer of avionics systems and power systems, and holds the right to set standards for commercial airliners together with Airbus in France.
As the two major oligarchs in the global commercial airliner field, Boeing and Airbus have a history of more than 100 years. It occupies 90% of the global market share in the field of commercial airliners, and almost realizes the monopoly of commercial airliners.
In addition, at present, there is a set of standard international systems for the flight standards and hardware parameters of global commercial airliners, and the formulation of this standard system has the shadow of Boeing aircraft and Airbus aircraft behind it.
Therefore, in the future, if the mainland wants to break the monopoly of Boeing and Airbus in the aerospace field, it can be described as a difficult process.
For the future development direction of Continental's commercial passenger aircraft, cost performance is undoubtedly the biggest advantage occupied by Continental's passenger aircraft.
Whether it is Boeing or Airbus, a large number of aircraft manufacturing plants are built in Europe and the United States, where the integrity of the industrial system, the price of labor, and the price of water and electricity resources are very expensive, which leads to the high cost of their aircraft.
Therefore, with the continuous embodiment of China's C919 price advantage in the future, and after the stability of the passenger aircraft in the service process is noticed by countries around the world, it will be able to go abroad and have an impact on the monopoly position of Boeing and Airbus.
Finally, the mainland must not slow down the development of commercial airliners. The mainland still needs to invest a lot of money in the research and development of its own power system and avionics system, and strive to achieve 100 percent localization of commercial passenger aircraft, so as to further occupy the market and grasp the initiative in competition.
epilogue
Boeing is one of the world's largest manufacturers of commercial airliners, but due to multiple air crashes and frequent quality scandals, Boeing's reputation has plummeted, and its stock price has plummeted by more than 400 billion yuan.
China Southern Airlines banned Boeing's $30 billion order and purchased 100 domestic C919 passenger planes instead, which Boeing did not expect!
In the future, the mainland will increase its economic investment in the field of passenger aircraft, and strive to break the monopoly position of Boeing and Airbus in the field of commercial passenger aircraft!
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