2019年经济学人 航空航天业和波音(1)（在线收听）

Business

来源于《商业》版块

The aerospace industry

航空航天业

Tick tock

时间紧迫

As newly built 737s pile up in factories and car parks, the aerospace industry waits for Boeing’s bestselling plane to return to the skies. Fingers crossed

随着新造的737飞机在工厂和停车场堆积如山，航空航天业正在等待波音最畅销的飞机重返天空。祈愿

Boeing has long been a central cog of America’s industrial machine. Each year it sells $100bn-worth of aerospace equipment and services around the world and pays $45bn to other American firms. It is the world’s largest aircraft-maker and America’s largest manufacturing exporter. Its commercial jets, which account for 60% of revenues, ferry millions of passengers. One in 100 American workers toils either directly for Boeing, whose workforce numbers 137,000 in its home country, or one of its 13,600 domestic suppliers, which employ a further 1.3m people in mostly well-paid jobs. In short, what is good for Boeing is good for corporate America.

波音公司长期以来一直是美国工业机器的中心齿轮。该公司每年在全球销售价值1000亿美元的航空设备和服务，并向其他美国公司支付450亿美元。波音公司是世界上最大的飞机制造商和美国最大的制造业出口商。其商用飞机运送数百万乘客，收入占其总收入60%。每100名美国工人中，就有1名直接为波音公司工作，该公司在美国本土拥有13.7万名员工，或为其13600家国内供应商之一工作。这些供应商雇佣了130万人，其中大部分从事高薪工作。简而言之，对波音有利的事情对美国企业也有利。

The flipside is also true, as has become obvious in the wake of two crashes of Boeing’s 737 max aircraft, in October and March, which have been linked to a malfunctioning flight-software system, and which killed 346 people. The human cost is immeasurable. The financial blow to Boeing itself, its suppliers and its airline customers is more tangible—and mounting.

而不利的一面也是真的，在去年10月和今年3月波音737 max飞机发生两起坠机事件之后，这一点变得很明显。这两起事故与飞行软件系统故障有关，导致346人遇难。人力成本无法估量。波音自身、供应商和航空公司客户受到的财务打击更为明显，而且还在加剧。

The company has continued to churn out the troubled aircraft since its grounding by regulators in March. But it has not been able to deliver them to customers. As a result Boeing’s inventories have grown by $6bn so far this year. The flightless planes fill all free space at its facilities, including car parks. Add the knock-on cost for airlines and for the supply chain and a rough estimate is that every quarter that the bestselling airliner remains on the ground costs $4bn. As the bill spirals an entire industry is now willing the plane to be back in the air by the end of the year.

自3月份被监管机构停飞以来，该公司一直在大量生产这款问题飞机。但一直未能将其交付给客户。因此，波音今年迄今的库存增长了60亿美元。这些不能飞的飞机占据了包括停车场在内的所有设施的空闲空间。再加上航空公司和供应链的连锁反应成本，粗略估计，这架最畅销的客机每季度的运营成本为40亿美元。随着账单螺旋式增加，整个行业都希望这个型号飞机能在今年年底前重返天空。