Fitch: Boeing Likely To Maintain Higher Rating than Airbus

Fitch Ratings says in a new report that it expects the rating differential between The Boeing Company (A/Stable) and Airbus Group SE (A-/Stable) to be maintained through the medium term. Despite a convergence of the ratings in recent years, a number of key aspects still separate the two companies’ rating profiles and are likely to continue to act as important differentiating factors. The most important of these is free cash flow (FCF), which at Boeing has been consistently higher over the past decade at US$32bn (compared with US$14bn at Airbus), owing chiefly to the company’s better programme implementation and lower