Boeing faces headwinds from crashes and competition

Earlier this month, a London-bound Air India plane crashed soon after take off in Ahmedabad, killing all but one of the 242 people aboard. This was one of the deadliest disasters involving a passenger aircraft in India in the last two decades. While this was the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner to crash, data shows that this is the latest in a litany of problems that Boeing faces.

Only weeks before the crash in Ahmedabad, Boeing had agreed to pay $1.1 billion in a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice to avoid prosecution over two crashes — one in 2018 and the other in 2019 — involving 737 Max airliners. In total, 346 people died in these incidents. Lawyers of the victims of these crashes criticised the payout deal as “morally repugnant”.

Boeing’s stock prices plummeted after the crash in Ahmedabad, but have recovered since. Data show that Boeing’s stock prices had fallen steeply after other crashes as well.

The change in Boeing’s closing stock prices every day between 2016 and 2025. Boeing’s stock prices have fallen steeply after crashes /incidents.

For instance, in October 2018, when Lion Air Flight 610, a Boeing 737 MAX airliner, crashed killing 189 people, the company’s stock fell sharply. On March 10, 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a Boeing 737 MAX 8, crashed minutes after take off. The company’s stock dropped again — this time more steeply than what Boeing had ever seen.

That incident claimed 157 lives. The company also suffered setbacks when its 787 variants were grounded by the U.S. after these accidents, and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2020-2021 period.

Last week, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) criticised Boeing’s safety culture for the mid-air blowout of a 737 MAX 9 flight operated by Alaska Airlines in January 2024. It said that Boeing had failed to provide adequate training and oversight to prevent a mid-air cabin panel blowout.

The NTSB is now working with India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau to extract data from the black box of the plane that crashed in Ahmedabad. In the ongoing investigation of the incident, no aircraft-related problems have been reported yet.

According to data from the Aviation Safety Network, a high incidence of accidents, as well as a high number of fatalities, involved Boeing-manufactured aircraft between 2019 and 2024. The chart shows the share of fatalities in aviation accidents that occurred between 2019 and 2024, globally.

In the last five years, 26.2% of all aviation accidents have involved a Boeing plane. This is much higher than the share of accidents involving other aircraft manufacturers such as Airbus whose revenues mimic those of Boeing.

Also, close to 43% of all fatalities in aviation accidents between 2019 and 2024 involved a Boeing plane. The company is financially struggling now as investors and operators have gravitated towards companies such as Airbus.

Fleet statistics from 2023, published by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, show that a majority of India’s fleet was manufactured by Airbus. The chart shows the manufacturer-wise share of aircraft owned/leased by various Indian airlines as of 2023.

Only 22% of the fleet were manufactured by Boeing. Only some Indian airlines such as SpiceJet and Akasa Air relied more on Boeing.

Company reports from Airbus and Boeing show a huge difference in the number of aircraft delivered by the two dominant aircraft manufacturers, globally. The chart shows the number of aircraft delivered globally by Airbus and Boeing.

Last year, Airbus delivered 766 aircraft, while Boeing delivered 348. The number of deliveries by Airbus has steadily grown since 2020 as opposed to Boeing’s.

Parliament data on orders placed by Indian airlines in 2023 and 2024 also suggest an increasing reliance on Airbus. The chart shows the number of orders placed by select Indian airlines to Airbus and Boeing in 2023 and 2024. 

In the last two years, IndiGo has placed 510 new orders with Airbus. Air India has placed 375 orders with Airbus and 220 with Boeing.