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Boeing confident amidst airline bankruptcies

In most industries, news that two of your customers are seeking bankruptcy protection would be chilling, if not downright jarring. But when you`re aerospace giant Boeing Co., and the customers are stalwart U.S. airlines, a week like the last one, while not exactly something to shrug off, is also far from a reason to panic. Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. are the latest major U.S. airlines to head to bankruptcy court, hampered by high labor and fuel costs that make it tough to compete with more nimble discount carriers.

Both airlines are Boeing customers: Delta has 55 airplanes on order, and Northwest is set to be the first U.S. carrier to put the company`s new 787 airplane into service. But analysts say neither airline is key to Boeing`s most important growth plans, which center on winning customers in growth markets such as India, China and other countries that are fast developing a flying middle class.

Delta Air Lines has not placed a Boeing order since 2000, the planes that are still to be delivered are left over from orders placed five years ago or more. Northwest hadn`t ordered a Boeing plane in nearly four years before agreeing to buy 18 of the new 787s in May. Other U.S. carriers that were once Boeing`s most prized customers also have fallen from prominence in recent years. United Airlines, whose parent UAL Corp. has been operating in bankruptcy since 2002, hasn`t placed a new order since 1999.