Is Boeing losing its market?

Boeing's 737 Max 8 has been grounded due to the safety issue. However, due to the contracts signed between Boeing and airlines, airlines cannot get refunds and send back their purchased 737 planes; in addition, they cannot end the contracts and stop future 737 aircraft delivery without paying enormous compensations to Boeing. Therefore, the financial losses are more significant on the airline side, rather than on the trouble maker, Boeing, side. The  airlines which have bought Boeing 737 Max 8 are the victims of this crisis, though Boeing is the one that should definitely take the responsibility.

Buying planes is an expensive investment for all airlines and grounding the planes they buy means their expensive investments will not generate any incomes for them in the short while they also need to pay the interests for their loans borrowed from banks. Moreover, grounding the planes does not mean there is no further cost, the cost of maintainence of these planes is not cheap either. Therefore, these airlines do not only not receive any incomes from their recent purchases of the new aircraft Boeing 737 Max 8, they are burning cashes everyday for their investment. Some airlines are facing serious financial difficulties after the governments deciding to ground all Boeing 737 Max 8 planes.

On the other side, Boeing may face potential losses in the long term, but its immediate financial losses are not significant unless the airlines can win legal battles in court and make Boeing pay for their losses, which is not very likely. Moreover, in the future, when airlines make their purchase decisions, they will do cost and benefit analysis based on the information they have at that time with relatively limited consideration of the crisis this time.

Overall, the Boeing scandal's biggest victim is of course the people who tragically died in the accidents, but the airlines are also big victims; on the other hand, Boeing who causes the crisis may not face any significant consequence, especially given the size of the company.