Boeing is one of few companies using program accounting. Won't this kind of slump drastically cut the number of planes they can distribute their development costs over for the 787 and 737 Max projects also?
More to the point, their stock is up 8% today on this news, because short term, this quarter, will look better with reduced costs. Who cares about the quarter after that, where production will have to be impacted by reduced workforce.
You were being sarcastic but you're kind of right. In the same way that this quarter isn't the be all-end all, neither is next quarter. Over, say, a 10 year time horizon, the next couple quarters will just be a blip.
Plus, Boeing doesn't exist in a vacuum. The US Govt is going to let anything happen to them due to national security reasons and they've shown that they aren't willing to wipe out shareholders as part of a bailout.
Frankly I'd be much more worried about the culture that allowed the 787MAX to happen than I would be about short-term COVID-19 reductions.
There are runways and parking lots in Washington full of undelivered planes which are waiting on contractual disputes related to the quality assurance of the 737 MAX issues. A significant percentage of Boeing planes are currently undeliverable and post-pandemic world airlines are likely going to cancel / downsize contracts or at least spend significant legal fees to attempt to do so.
Barring a quick and easy vaccination or herd immunity that accidentally happens much faster than expected, travel is unlikely to recover this year and perhaps not next. Clearing their backlog of planes will likely take 4+ years unless the company can convince people and airlines to trust them again.
Or if countries close borders and don't reopen as much.
Or...
There are a lot more risks here than just draw-out pandemic.
In short, the bond holders would become the new shareholders, and the government would be able to drive it to the conclusion that the government wants. This is oversimplified, as reality has much more nuance than this.
That might actually be the best option going forward, as they could clean up a bunch of legacy crap and streamline the firm.
Plus, the government might want multiple companies ( e.g. commercial/defense/space ) instead of one monolith.
That definitely won't happen this year, perhaps ever.
Trump said today that states are responsible for procurement and development of virus tests, labs and processing material. Each state, on their own. If he's afraid of that responsibility, Boeing is going to be something he's never heard of.
Unless you're counting the crashes that won't happen because of the shutdown, of course.