Are production cuts coming at Boeing?
The number of parked commercial aircraft has sharply increased. It’s a sign of airline oversupply and one that could signal production cuts at Boeing and Airbus, according to a UBS Securities report.
The report estimates 2,560 commercial aircraft were parked at the end of February, about 4 percent higher year-to-date and 41 percent higher than the recent trough in November 2007.
The report, by UBS analyst David Strauss, estimates that 90 percent of the parked airliners are large commercial aircraft and the remaining are regional jets.
Seventy-two percent of the fleet consists of Boeing aircraft, although only 12 percent are in-production models, the report said. Of the parked Airbus aircraft, about 56 percent are in-production models.
About 600 planes in the parked fleet consist of aircraft that are 15 years of age or younger, which are likely to come back into service once demand recovers, the report said. The number of relatively younger aircraft that are parked is up 5 percent since the end of 2008 and has more than doubled in the past 12 months.
In February, about 1,867 Boeing planes were parked, UBS said. That’s 29 percent higher from a year ago and includes a significant increase in Boeing’s popular 737s, and in MD-80s and 767s.
