Boeing’s third-quarter earnings have exceeded Wall Street’s expectations and the manufacturer has raised its outlook for the year. Strong demand for commercial aircraft shows airlines are investing in aircraft again after a lull during the worst of the economic crisis.
“Both passenger and freighter markets [are] rebounding more sharply than originally anticipated,” says Jim McNerney, chief executive of Boeing. He said the growth was fuelled by increasing air travel across the world, although he stressed that emerging markets continued to show the strongest recovery.
Boeing booked 263 net orders and delivered 481 aircraft in 2009; so far for 2010 it has booked 422 net orders, which is expected to end on 460 deliveries by the end of the year.
Net income for Boeing was $837 million or $1.12 per share in the third quarter, compared with a net loss of $1.56 billion or $2.23 per share in the same period last year.