US plans helping out Boeing to prevent its downfall

By Vakkas Dogantekin

ANKARA (AA) - U.S. President Donald Trump Tuesday said his administration is planning to provide financial assistance to aviation company Boeing amid coronavirus pandemic and declining jet orders.

"Boeing got hit hard in many different ways," Trump said during press conference.

"We have to protect Boeing... We'll be helping Boeing," Trump added, confirming reports from Boeing that it was in talks with the U.S. government regarding a short term financial relief.

"Obviously when the airlines aren't doing well then Boeing is not going to be doing well. So we'll be helping Boeing," Trump justified his move, not giving details about the relief package.

American airliners have knocked on the door of the federal government for $50 billion in financial assistance for passenger airlines, along with $8 billion for cargo airlines and $10 billion for the nation's airports.

- Decrease in orders

According to Eturbonews website, which provides global travel industry news, Boeing’s gross aircraft orders for 2019 slumped to an all-time low triggered largely by a decrease in orders for the 737 model.

Last year, Boeing received only 69 unit orders for the model, a steep drop of about 91.7% from the 837 orders received in 2018.

Its top-selling aircraft model was grounded worldwide after two crashes that cost hundreds of lives and hit the company nearly $19 billions financially per its filings.

Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET-302 crashed on March 10 shortly after taking off from an Addis Ababa airport, killing all 157 onboard.

The model was also involved in an October 2018 crash outside of Jakarta, Indonesia. All 189 people on board Lion Air Flight JT610 were killed.

Many countries, including the U.S., Turkey, Russia and Iran, grounded the model over security concerns.

The report accused Boeing and the FAA of "gambling with the public’s safety in the aftermath of the Lion Air crash, resulting in the death of 157 more individuals on Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 less than five months later."

- Technical problems

A preliminary congressional report released earlier this month by the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure accused the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of "failing its duty to identify key safety problems and to ensure that they were adequately addressed during the certification process," calling the agency's review "grossly insufficient".

"The combination of these problems doomed the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines flights," said the investigative report.

Boeing has also been accused of a lack of transparency.