The Bottom Line

The financial cost to Boening, airlines and the industry

We may never know just how much the 737 MAX crisis may cost Boeing. After the grounding of the aircraft following two crashes that claimed 346 lives in October 2018 and in April 2019, the prospect of a financial reckoning for the MAX is complex and ever-changing.

Right now, with the crisis very much alive and some 400 of the jets at five dozen airlines worldwide still earthbound nearly 10 months after their global grounding in March, any assessment of the long-term cost to Boeing must necessarily involve a certain amount of speculation.