Boeing

Boeing Commercial Airplanes today announced 489 commercial airplane deliveries in 2000, almost matching the 490-airplane delivery estimate made earlier in the year.

Commercial Airplanes President Alan Mulally noted operating margins improved throughout the year, even while deliveries decreased -- as expected -- from 1999's record-breaking 620 airplanes. "Our focus on improving the health of our core airplane production business has paid off rapidly," Mulally said. "And that's benefiting everyone -- our customers, employees and shareholders -- even sooner than we expected."

Boeing continues to estimate 2001 and 2002 commercial deliveries to be in the range of 530 jetliners each year.

"We are seeing a solid period of sustained strength in our delivery stream," Mulally said. "This unprecedented period of stability will allow us to improve the productivity and responsiveness of our production systems."

On the order side, Commercial Airplanes announced definitive agreements during the year for 611 airplanes, increasing the announced unfilled order backlog to 1,612. Continued economic recovery in Asia, along with strong economic performance in the U.S. and Europe, has fueled a strong market for air travel, and airlines continue to turn to Boeing airplanes to meet that demand.

"Our sales and marketing teams continue to strengthen our order book through their focus on understanding and anticipating the needs of our airline customers and their passengers," Mulally said. He noted that the demand for convenient, point-to-point service was reflected in the success of the 777 airplane family, which saw a record 117 orders for the year.

"The 777's remarkable success in 2000 clearly demonstrates the trend toward more point-to-point service that enables passengers to go where they want to go, when they want to go, safely and conveniently," Mulally said.

Highlights in 2000 also included first orders for several new airplanes: longer-range versions of the 777-200, 777-300, 767-400ER and 747-400.

Commercial Airplanes' orders for the year are valued at over $50 billion, part of which came from its growing Commercial Aviation Services unit. Looking ahead, Commercial Airplanes expects to realize increasing revenue from this unit as it enters new markets and new business segments.

Boeing's emergence as a provider of total solutions -- developing and packaging services to meet customer requirements -- will be demonstrated early in 2001, when the first 757 Special Freighter is delivered to DHL. Boeing acquired and will modify the airplanes for DHL and also will be involved in maintenance support and fleet management.

"We're excited about how we're developing these new businesses to help our airline customers continuously improve the quality and efficiency of their services," Mulally said.