Boeing has cut deliveries from Spirit Aerosystems for the second time this year owing to a slump in demand because of the pandemic.
Spirit supplies fuselages for Boeing’s 737 Max commercial aircraft. The aerospace giant ordered parts corresponding to 216 aircrafts from Spirit in January 2020 and then cut it down to 125 fuselages by May, according to media reports.
On June 19, Boeing mailed Spirit asking the supplier to further cut the delivery, by 53fuselages to 72. Thirty-five of the 72 shipsets have already been delivered by Spirit.
Boeing says that the cut was implemented due to the impact of the pandemic, as international flights continue to be restricted across the globe, media reports indicated. It also considered the inventory pile-up due to both the pandemic as well the grounding of the entire 737 Max fleet after the May 2019 crash, allegedly caused by software malfunction. The Trump administration in turn banned this fleet from flying. The situation remains unchanged a year later.
Spirit says that it may breach the supply contract in the last quarter, due to a buildup of a total of $1.2bn in debt. However, the US military has allocated $80mn to provide relief to the aerospace parts provider, according to Spirit’s recent press release.