Plane fact: Boeing on fast track to profits

BOEING Co, the world's second-biggest commercial-airplane maker, said yesterday earnings rose 61 percent in the third quarter as it ratcheted up production to deliver nine more jetliners than a year earlier.

The company boosted its full-year sales and profit forecasts, Bloomberg News reported. Net income increased to US$1.11 billion, or US$1.44 a share, from US$694 million, or 89 US cents, a year earlier, when Boeing spent money to close its in-flight Internet service.

Sales grew 12 percent to US$16.5 billion, the Chicago-based company said yesterday in a statement sent by PR Newswire.

Boeing boosted commercial-aircraft deliveries nine percent to 109 in the quarter, putting it closer to eclipsing Airbus SAS as the biggest plane maker.

Boeing has forecast deliveries to rise to as many as 520 planes next year, even with delays that have pushed back the first shipment of its 787 Dreamliner by six months. Orders are being fueled by low-cost carriers and airlines in Asia and the Middle East.

"Commercial aviation demand for Boeing jets is still strong globally despite fears of weakness in the US," said Matthew Spahn, an analyst at TCW Group in New York, which owns about 1.3 million Boeing shares. "Even in the US, fares have been rising and passenger-load factors remain strong. That bodes well for continued strength."

Boeing was projected to post net income of US$1.26 a share, the average estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Revenue was estimated to be US$16 billion.

Boeing rose two US cents to US$93.95 on Tuesday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have increased 6.9 percent this year, compared with a 7.1-percent gain in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.

CEO James McNerney, 58, is ramping up assembly lines 12 percent this year as he works through a record backlog of more than US$200 billion in orders.

Boeing has forecast commercial shipments this year will total 440 to 445 planes, up from 398 last year. Through the end of the third quarter, Boeing deliveries were up 12 percent to 329 planes from 295, led by 81 of its 737 models.

Assembly time for 737s, the world's most widely flown airplane, has been cut in half to 11 days since 1997 helped by converting production to a moving assembly line.