Boeing Says Strike Will Cut 1995 Deliveries Company Expects To Deliver 205-210 Jets Rather Than 230

Boeing said it expects to deliver between 205 and 210 jets this year, instead of the 230 originally projected, as production lines have been slowed by an eight-week strike by 32,500 Machinist union members.

Ron B. Woodard, president of the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group, Seattle-based Boeing Co.’s civil-jet maker, told journalists in Paris the company’s revenue and profits “will obviously be suppressed” in 1995, though he said he couldn’t make a specific projection.

Woodward said he believes the company will be able to catch up in 1996, however, predicting Boeing will deliver 210 planes in 1996.

Speaking at a press meeting with journalists Monday, Woodard declined to comment on talk that Boeing is negotiating to buy all or part of McDonnell Douglas Co., whose Douglas Aircraft division competes with Boeing and Europe’s Airbus Industrie in making civil jets.

“We make no comments on acquisitions or mergers,” he said.

The company’s shares closed down 75 cents on the New York Stock Exchange, at $72.75. The stock price may have been influenced by the crash of a Boeing 737 jet in Cameroon late Sunday.

Separately, Boeing announced that Air Berlin ordered two 737-400 twinjets. Estimated value of the order is $86 million.

The tour charter operator will used the new airplanes to replace aircraft whose operating leases expire next year.