Smith, chairman and CEO of the Memphis-based company. Boeing Co. s stock rose more than 5 percent on the news its biggest one-day jump since June 14, when an earlier announcement of A380 delays sent its shares up 6.
5 percent. Boeing shares have more than tripled since March of 2003, driven in part by the strength of the aerospace company s commercial jet business which stands in stark contrast to rival Airbus s woes. Airbus regrets the decision by FedEx, company spokeswoman Barbara Kracht said, "but we understand their need to urgently address their capacity growth.
" To streamline production, Airbus announced Monday that it will slash the number of suppliers it uses from 3,000 to 500. Virgin Atlantic Airways also said last month it would defer the delivery of the first of its six Airbus A380 superjumbo jets until 2013. FedEx expects to get four of the 777s in 2009, eight in 2010 and the rest the following year.
It will assemble the freighter version of the 777 on the same production line, in Everett, north of Seattle, as the passenger version of the airplane. UPS, also known as United Parcel Service Inc., had been expecting its first A380 delivery in September 2009, but has been told by Airbus not to expect the first one until May 2010 at the earliest, with delivery of the other nine to be completed by the end of 2012, Black said.
Boeing shares surged $4.37, or 5.4 percent, to $84.
85 on the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, making them the top gainer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and FedEx shares rose $1.07 to $115.01.
Shares in EADS fell to 20.66 euros ($26.26) in Paris.
The surge in Boeing s share price marks a stark turnaround from the spring of 2003, when Boeing shares hovered in the mid-20s amid concerns that Airbus was seeing more success winning commercial airplane customers. Boeing also was battered by a defense contracting scandal and the ouster of former CEOs Phil Condit and Harry Stonecipher, who himself had been brought back from retirement in 2003 to erase the taint from a string of defense scandals. But now Airbus is seeing its share of hard times.
Chris Lozier, an associate director at Morningstar, said the jump in Boeing s stock price Tuesday was indicative of the troubles the A380 program faces, and the relative strength of Boeing s commercial jet operations. "Overall, the commercial part of Boeing s business, it still looks great from an investor point of view," Lozier said. AP Business Writers Allison Linn in Seattle, Woody Baird in Memphis and Harry Weber in Atlanta contributed to this report.
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