In the first quarter, Boeing posted revenues of $18.9 billion, compared with sales totaling $16.23 billion at EADS. Boeing’s net earnings totaled $1.1 billion, compared with about $315.8 million at EADS. Boeing’s earnings per share (EPS) totaled $1.44 in the first quarter, compared with EPS of $0.38 at EADS.

And both companies have their problems. Boeing’s problems are well-known: long delays in the delivery of the company’s 787 Dreamliner and an electrical system problem that kept the all 787s grounded for three months. At EADS, similar delays stalled delivery of the Airbus A350 XWB, which is just about to enter flight testing after the first plane got a nifty paint job.

The big issue for EADS — and Airbus — is that it is bleeding cash. The company’s free cash flow in the first quarter was negative — about $4.15 billion negative. The company is burning through cash as it prepares to manufacture the A350, a military transport, and its A380 jumbo jet. The company expects to get its free cash flow back at break-even for the year.

Fox Business says of the resumption of 787 Dreamliner flights:

State-run Air India Ltd will resume flying its Boeing Co 787 Dreamliner passenger jets from Wednesday, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said on Tuesday, almost four months after the planes were grounded due to safety concerns.

Air India has six Dreamliners and has ordered 21 more. The planes have been grounded worldwide since January following incidents of overheating in the batteries providing auxiliary power. Boeing has since worked to develop new battery housings to prevent a repeat of the incidents.

Air India will start a Dreamliner domestic flight on Wednesday and will start international flights on May 22, Singh told reporters, adding that all six of its Dreamliners would be ready for flying by the end of the month. Air India would also acquire eight more Dreamliners by December, he added.

The A350 is more directly a competitor for Boeing’s 777, and the new A350-1000 is poaching sales from Boeing. Last week’s announcement of a new version of Boeing’s 777 — called mysteriously enough the 777X — is aimed directly at the A350-1000. Both British Airways and Air Lease Corp. (NYSE: AL) have ordered several of the new A350s as replacements for the 777.

Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways’ CEO, also said that the airline has no plans to cancel further orders of the 787 and, in fact, may double its order from 30 to 60 of the Boeing jetliners. The airlines also may order more A380s, the Airbus answer to Boeing’s venerable 747.

Airbus has taken orders for 262 of the A380s, which carries a list price of $389.9 million each, compared with orders of 105 to 110 for Boeing’s latest 747-8. Last month Boeing said it would cut production of the 747 from 2 a month to 1.75 a month.

Qatar Airways owns five of the planes and Air India owns six. Ethiopian Airways, which owns four Dreamliners, recommenced commercial flight of the aircraft last week. All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines, which combined own 24 Dreamliners, have estimated their losses due to the grounding at $110 million.

The actual amount of compensation for Air India and Qatar Airways has not been announced. Under the contract terms with Air India, Boeing cannot be held liable for loss of use for a problem with the aircraft, but an Air India official said that grounding the entire fleet was not foreseen and that Boeing had agreed to “compensate Air India for the [losses] it suffered.” Presumably the company has reached a similar deal with Qatar Airways.

Boeing’s shares are inactive in the premarket this morning, having closed Friday at $93.74 in a 52-week range of $66.82 to $93.95. The 52-week high was posted on Friday.

Qatar Airways owns five of the planes and Air India owns six. Ethiopian Airways, which owns four Dreamliners, recommenced commercial flight of the aircraft last week. All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines, which combined own 24 Dreamliners, have estimated their losses due to the grounding at $110 million.

Boeing has found a fix for the battery problem that led to the grounding of all its 787s, but the company still does not know the cause. But that does not appear to be slowing down Boeing’s marketing machine. The company yesterday began promoting a new version of its 777 twin-aisle, two-engine passenger/cargo plane.

The new version of the 777, called the 777X, is said to have a flight range of 9,500 nautical miles and would be the longest-range aircraft in the world. Boeing is talking with potential customers about requirements for several versions of the new models. The plane is Boeing’s response to the latest large plane offering from Airbus, the A350-1000, which has a range of up to around 8,400 nautical miles.

Boeing’s shares are up 0.2% in premarket trading this morning, at $92.38 in a 52-week range of $66.82 to $93.38.

According to Bloomberg:

ANA Holdings Inc., and Japan Airlines Co., the world’s biggest operators of Boeing Co. 787s, forecast a bigger impact this year from the plane’s grounding as they prepare to start commercial flights with the Dreamliner.

The grounding will cut ANA’s sales by 9 billion yen ($92 million) in the year ending in March, compared with a 7 billion yen reduction a year earlier. Parking of the Dreamliner fleet will pare Japan Air’s operating profit by 2.6 billion yen this year, compared with 1.3 billion yen last year, said Norikazu Saito, a managing executive officer.

McNerney’s optimism about the 787 continues to be misplaced.

The Wall Street Journal said of Dreamliner test flights:

All Nippon Airways, which now operates under its newly created holding company ANA Holdings Inc. , has 180 Dreamliner pilots who haven’t been able to fly the aircraft since battery incidents prompted the suspension of 787 services worldwide in January. Training programs like lectures and flight simulators have been only available to maintain the required skills to fly the high-tech jet.

ANA may conduct at least 180 test flights “if a test flight is required for every pilot,” a person with knowledge of the airline’s 787 operations said. Still how many tests might take place remains fluid, the person added.

We noted earlier this morning that the 787 may be cleared to fly again as soon as today, but how that will affect public sentiment about the safety of the plane remains to be seen.

Regarding the 747-8 aircraft, Boeing said that there have been a total of 110 orders for the planes, of which 46 have been delivered. Over the next 20 years the company expects to see demand for 740 of the planes.

Boeing will deliver the first 747-8 under the new production plan early in 2014. The company does not expect a “significant financial impact” to follow the production slow-down. The average list price for a 747-8 is $351.4 million.

Shares of Boeing are trading down about 0.5% in the premarket this morning, at $85.70 in a 52-week range of $66.82 to $89.46.

Boeing’s airline partners have had to take the plane off of their routes and use alternative aircraft, which they claim has cost them money. Boeing may have to pay these carriers penalties. More importantly, the flying public may be afraid that the 787 is unsafe, and that belief may take some time to overcome.

The Wall Street Journal said about the Dreamliner’s return to service:

The Federal Aviation Administration is expected to move as soon as Friday to end a three-month grounding of Boeing Co.’s BA -0.66% 787 Dreamliner jet, according to people familiar with the matter.

Barring some last minute delay, these people said, the FAA will announce Boeing has demonstrated that the 787′s redesigned batteries are safe, convincing regulators in the process that various internal enhancements and a new protective metal container will prevent fires and automatically suck smoke or toxic fumes out of the cutting-edge plane.

According to the Federal Register, the FAA reported:

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all The Boeing Company Model 737-600, -700, -700C, -800, -900, and -900ER series airplanes. This AD was prompted by reports of an incorrect procedure used to apply the wear and corrosion protective surface coating to attach pins of the horizontal stabilizer rear spar. This AD requires inspecting to determine the part number of the attach pins of the horizontal stabilizer rear spar, and replacing certain attach pins with new, improved attach pins. We are issuing this AD to prevent premature failure of the attach pins, which could cause reduced structural integrity of the horizontal stabilizer to fuselage attachment, resulting in loss of control of the airplane.

“Loss of control” is a phrase that will cause anxiety among both carriers and passengers. Boeing’s reputation with both those groups already has been undermined by widely reported battery problems in the company’s brand new 787 Dreamliner.

Boeing has lost control of its production and quality control functions, as the problems with the two planes show. In some ways, the 737 issue is the greater of the two because so many hundreds of the planes are already in service.

The news about the 737 will place even more pressure on the Boeing board to question the tenure of chairman and CEO W. James (Jim) McNerney Jr. While Boeing’s planes cause more and more trouble to the airline industry, the company’s corporate public relations reaction has not addressed the safety issue at all. Rather, the company has focused on it position as a global “innovator” and its role as a good “corporate citizen.” All the while, airlines have had to cope with the grounding of the 787, and now will need to go though the disruptions of 737 inspections, and whatever future problems that process could bring.

The problems with the 737 will once again erode the flying public’s confidence in the safety of Boeing planes.

Boeing’s core airplane manufacturing and design functions are appropriately under siege. Someone needs to take responsibility for the breakdowns. After years of being protected by his board, McNerney should be taken to task.