US regulators temporarily grounded 171 Boeing 737 MAX 9 jetliners for safety checks following a cabin panel blowout that forced an Alaska Airlines jet to make an emergency landing.
ADVERTISEMENTShares in Boeing, listed in Frankfurt and the US pre-market, fell 9% on Monday after the US Federal Aviation Administration ordered the temporary grounding of 171 of the American company's 737 MAX 9 jets for safety checks, according to reports.
On Friday, a piece of fuselage tore off an Alaska Airlines jet after take-off from Portland, Oregon, forcing the pilots to make an emergency landing.
Boeing competes with Airbus, which has been gaining market share since two Boeing MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 killed nearly 350 people, leading to the MAX's worldwide grounding for 20 months.
Airbus shares were up more than 1% early on Monday. Industry sources said the company will announce this week that it delivered 735 planes last year, beating Boeing to remain the world's biggest planemaker for the fifth year in a row.
The European aerospace multinational is also on course to beat industry records for gross and net orders.
Shares in Boeing's suppliers and customers could also take a hit as many airlines grounded their MAX jets following Friday's incident. Spirit Aero shares were down 15.9% in pre-market trading in the US. Alaska Air shares fell 5%, while United Airlines shares were down 2.8%.
The move in Boeing shares was expected to have a big impact on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, given the aerospace firm's presence in the index. Dow Futures fell 188 points.
US investment bank Jefferies said in a note that the latest Boeing incident could slow aircraft production if manufacturing and assembly processes are subject to further regulatory scrutiny.
The planemaker's CEO Dave Calhoun said on Sunday that the company's response to the incident was its main focus at the moment as regulators investigate. Boeing also plans to hold a company-wide webcast on safety on Tuesday to discuss its response.
