Boeing may lose $600 billion worth of orders due to two fatal crashes

157 people died in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines’ B737 Max 8, shedding further doubt on the safety of Boeing 737 Max aircraft, not long after 189 deceased in another crash in last October. The two crashed B737 Max aircraft and the global ban may lead to Boeing losing $600 billion worth of orders for more than 5,000 aircraft across the world.

According to newswire Bloomberg, Kenya Airways is considering to buy Airbus A320 aircraft instead of B737 Max.

Boeing's market value has dipped after the two tragedies

Russian airline Utair Aviation also asked for assurances from Boeing before receiving the first batch of goods, including 30 B737 Max aircraft.

Meanwhile, Indonesian airline Lion Air, which suffered the first crash, is considering to cancel its $22 billion standing order for B737 Max aircraft. Saudi Arabian Airlines’ (Saudia) nearly $6 billion order is also teetering on the edge due to the crash.

Most recently, the representative of Vietnamese airline Vietjet, which ordered 200 B737 Max aircrafts, said, “We are following the B737 Max case and will decide whether we will put the aircraft into commercial operation after receiving the case’s official conclusion and guidance from global aviation authorities and the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam.”

Boeing’s B737 aircraft family has been in operation since 1960 and is the most profitable product of the US-based aircraft maker. Its new version, the B737 Max, has received huge global interest, with orders for more than 5,000 machines worth $600 billion.

However, similar things of two aircraft accidents related to B737 Max of Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines have raised concern about the quality of the kind of aircraft – instead of just repeating that they are the same kind of aircraft, we could tell something about potential causes. Due to the crisis, Boeing’s stock last week lost 12 per cent of its value, losing the company $27 billion from its market valuation.

Despite the cause of the tragic crashes is still under investigation, there are opinions that the faulty automatic pilot could be the culprit. According to data published by Aviation Safety Reporting System under NASA, at least two US pilots reported that their aircrafts nosedived and lost altitude when using autopilot mode on the B737 Max 8 in the last few months.

Data shows that there were 11 reports about the Boeing 737 MAX 8 logged between April 2018 and December 2018, according to USA Today.