Aerospace stock Boeing (BA) is looking to branch out into the autonomous air taxi market via its Wisk Aero subsidiary. Now, Boeing even has a target date for the service to go live: 2030. The news is actually proving welcome enough for shareholders, as Boeing shares gained fractionally in Monday afternoon’s trading.
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Naturally, a new service like this is not a simple thing to set up, which is why Boeing is eyeing this as part of a five-year plan rather than a thing they could launch in a week or two. Boeing looks to run commercial flights in Miami, Los Angeles, and Houston, and it is currently laying new groundwork in places like Broward County and Palm Beach County in Florida.
In fact, Boeing’s planned launch is a little something different. While several companies are working on small-scale “air taxi” services, Boeing’s version is unique in that it is autonomous. While the competitors require a human to be involved, Boeing’s version will fly by itself, without human intervention. In fact, the latest version of the aircraft Wisk has developed for this purpose has seating for four and absolutely no onboard controls, reports note.
No Irish Eyes Smiling Here
Boeing is facing growing concern from at least one airline: Ryanair (RYAAY). In fact, Ryanair is considering refusing delivery of the jets that have not yet been delivered, insisting that tariff costs are Boeing’s to bear, and that Ryanair is prepared to wait until the tariffs are out of the picture before taking delivery. Considering that this is a plan that worked remarkably poorly for China back in April, Ryanair’s plan here may not work out well.
The problem, of course, is that Boeing has a backlog of orders stretching back years, so there will almost certainly be buyers for Boeing’s planes from other airlines who do not want to continue waiting. And Ryanair’s ability to place an order elsewhere is perhaps even more limited; Airbus (EADSY) is backed up until mid-2030, reports note, and China’s COMAC is, well, perhaps less recognized in the market.
Is Boeing a Good Stock to Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on BA stock based on 17 Buys, two Holds and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 28.19% rally in its share price over the past year, the average BA price target of $240 per share implies 3.83% upside potential.
