Originally Posted by
WHBM
I wonder how the cash flow is going. Airlines do not pay all the money at delivery, they make (commonly financed) progress payments as production goes along. Are they still expected to make these payments to the manufacturer when the product cannot be delivered ? What if they refuse ? I wonder what provision there is in the contracts for this situation.
Most of the airlines are public companies, so I'd like to know how they could justify progress payments on a durable good with unknown delivery time and terminal value to their supervisory bodies and shareholders. But indeed, very little is heard in this regard.
To be honest, I find the financial aspect of the crisis equally intresting than the technical one. I do wonder how things were going if BA was not a major asset to public finance in the western world. My personal impression is that there are a lot of entities betting on the "too big to fail"-scenario. The 737 MAX might be good for some more shockwaves through the industry. IMHO we have just seen the tip of the iceberg.