Boeing/Spirit - Issues Seem Less Onerous Than MAX8 Issue

Aircraft sector: Boeing and Spirit Aero were the two key losers yesterday (post the 737 MAX9 blowout Friday) but WSJ is reporting that both Alaska and United have found that certain bolts were either loose or missing. Three points:

1. This appears not simply an issue limited to the specific airframe on Friday's incident so the market was correct to worry on a broader scale.
   
2. If this is simply loose/missing bolts, at least it appears a relatively easy and quick fix (assuming bolt availability) rather than the multi-month grounding suffered by the MAX8 variant (Mar-19 to Dec-20). This reduces the economic damage in scope for the airlines to pursue the manufacturers over.
   
3. It would appear to come down to an issue of maintenance, rather than design, so liability for the failure to properly fix bolts in place should be a relatively easy trace. At least this reduces long-term uncertainty over this specific flaw, if not the reputational damage to Boeing, especially after the MAX8 events.

Boeing (Baa2[S]/BBB-[S]/BBB-[P]) saw debt OASs broadly widen yesterday (but not by much more than 10bp) whereas Spirit Aero (SR unsec not rated) went wider by 40-80bp across the day. Boeing equity ended the day down 8%, whereas Spirit was 11% lower which is a much smaller variance that the credit market was pricing.