🎬Boeing's failed year

CURRENCIES

Currencies: Bitcoin has continued its stratospheric rise following President Trump’s re-election despite slowing down in the past week. Analysts predict a fall, but not to pre-election levels as enthusiasm subsides in the coming weeks. The South African Rand continued its slight dip against the US Dollar following interest cuts announced last week.

AVIATION
Ethiopian Airlines is the latest to reel from Boeing strike

Like Netflix this past Friday during the Tyson vs. Paul fight, Boeing appears to have taken up overpromising and underdelivering as a side hustle. According to the CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, a seven-week strike at Boeing has severely disrupted aircraft deliveries to the carrier, threatening to impact its long-term growth.

Production of the American company’s best-selling 737 MAX and the 777 jet have been halted by the strike driven largely by worker exasperation after more than a decade of near-stagnant pay. Boeing responded last week saying it would be several weeks before it fully restarts airplane production, given that restarting a manufacturing line is a multi-stage process.

A troubled partnership

In March 2019, an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX from Addis Ababa to Nairobi plunged six minutes after take-off, killing all 157 on board, triggering the global grounding of the aircraft. Tensions between the airline and Boeing soared in the immediate aftermath, with Ethiopian pushing back on suggestions the tragedy resulted from pilot error.

Boeing later admitted that its faulty flight handling system — known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) — was partly to blame. The relationship between both parties stood strong however with Ethiopian Airlines CEO calling Boeing a “great aerospace company”.

And Boeing hasn’t fared better in 2024. From an incident in January that involved a blown-out fuselage mid-flight on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX aircraft that cost the company $160m in settlements to failing to honor its contractual obligations to rescue the stranded astronauts on the ISS, Boeing has had a trepid year that has seen a CEO change, several lawsuits, and worker strikes.

Thankfully, the airline remained optimistic about being close to its targets by the end of the year, the CEO said, thanks in part to a recent delivery of Airbus A350-900s. -GN

TRENDING
Jake Paul handles Mike Tyson but Netflix couldn’t handle the demand.

The YouTuber defeated the much older former heavyweight champion in an underwhelming fight on Friday that Netflix said was viewed in 60 million households. Fight promoter Most Valuable Promotions said gate receipts for the bout, which took place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, exceeded $18 million, a record for a boxing gate outside of the state of Nevada. While Tyson and Paul went the distance, the same could not be said for Netflix. Downdetector received more than 500,000 reports of users having problems with the live stream; outages began at 12am WAT and lasted until 6 am. Enough to leave subscribers worried about their Netflix binge plans during the coming holidays.

SHOWER THOUGHTS

NEWS
Round the continent

• TikTok is pulling down more than 360,000 sexually explicit videos from its platform in Kenya due to fears of the country imposing stricter content moderation measures on the company.

• Senegal’s President’s Pastef party is projected to win an absolute majority following Sunday’s parliamentary elections. President Faye believes the crucial electoral victory will give him a “free hand” to implement his policy agenda.

• South Africa’s Wits University will unveil its first dedicated artificial intelligence institute this week, a first on the continent.

• UNICEF is inviting early-stage tech companies leveraging AI to create radical change for children to apply for its Venture Fund program.