Why Boeing will likely cruise through its crisis

It's too big to fail

A plane.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Cameron Spencer/Getty Images, javarman3/iStock)

Boeing's 737 Max 8 has been grounded. On Wednesday, the United States finally banned flights of the aircraft, following the same decision by 42 other countries. The Max 8 was Boeing's best selling aircraft ever, but one of the planes crashed on Sunday, and another crashed back in October. Both disasters may be linked to the same glitch.

You'd think this could be an existential threat to the aircraft manufacturer. There are 4,600 outstanding orders for the Max 8 around the world — $550 billion in expected future revenue. Max 8 sales this year were projected to be almost a third of Boeing's annual revenue. Not surprisingly, the company's stock is down about 11 percent.

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Jeff Spross

Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.