NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Boeing Co. posted sharply lower third-quarter earnings that met Wall Street expectations for the period and lowered its guidance through next year, and executives said further staff cuts in its commercial aircraft and satellite units are possible without an improvement in demand.

The world's largest aircraft maker earned $375 million, or 46 cents a share, excluding special items but including the previously announced writedown of aircraft values due to the drop in demand for new aircraft. The writedown cost $250 million on a non-cash, pre-tax basis, and reduced earnings per share by 20 cents.

The results were down from $713 million, or 88 cents a share, it earned a year earlier but in line with the consensus forecasts of analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call.

Special charges including the writedown of some investments and some one-time gains basically balanced each other out. The net income for the quarter came in at $372 million, or 46 cents a share, down 43 percent from $650 million, or 80 cents a share, a year earlier. The company's net income would have been reduced an additional 4 cents a share in each period if the cost of stock options had been accounted for in the result.

Shares of Boeing (BA: down $1.56 to $30.59, Research, Estimates), a component of the Dow Jones industrial average, were down more than 4 percent in midday trading Wednesday.

Revenue fell to $12.7 billion from $13.7 billion a year earlier, but topped First Call's estimate of $12.4 billion.

The company did not give specific earnings-per-share guidance but said its operating margins will be thinner than previously expected both this year and next, and that 2003 revenue will be about $50 billion rather than its earlier guidance of about $52 billion.

It said free cash flow, which is the profit generated before amortization and depreciation, will be $2.0 billion to $2.5 billion in 2003 rather than its earlier guidance of more than $3 billion.

Boeing said commercial jet demand remains weak, and it also sees continued weakness for the foreseeable future in the satellite business, which has been hurt by troubles in the telecommunications sector. Those weaknesses are partially offset by a stronger outlook for its defense business.

"We are in a dramatically changed business environment," Boeing CEO Phil Condit said in a call with investors. "The slow recovery of both air travel and airline profitability continues to hurt demand for both aircraft and aircraft support. Demand for commercial satellite launches may be several years away from recovery."

Condit said the company is close to completing 30,000 job cuts announced in the wake of the Sept. 11 attack, and that while further cuts are likely without a rebound in demand, they won't be nearly as deep.

"I don't see big numbers, but I do see us going down some additional amount in headcount," he said. "How much is natural attrition, how much is layoffs, I don't know. I don't see any growth."

Boeing lost a major order earlier this week when British discount carrier easyJet, which has only Boeing jets today, agreed to buy 120 jets from competitor Airbus Industrie, citing lower cost. Condit said that despite the lost sale, Boeing is committed to holding the line on prices.

"We will be aggressive, but we won't be stupid. We won't take bad deals," he said. "The events of the first part of the week bear that out."

The company said it is on track for its previous guidance of 380 commercial jet deliveries this year, with about three-quarters of those planes going to non-U.S. carriers. It nudged down its 2003 deliveries guidance to between 275 and 285, rather than its earlier guidance of 275 to 300. It said it expects 2004 deliveries should be about the same as 2003.

The company also said market declines and low interest rates have hit its pension fund performance, causing it to take a non-cash charge of up to $4 billion to shareholders' equity in the fourth quarter. It said that charge will not affect earnings, though. The company also agreed to a new labor pact with its largest union that increased pension benefits by up to 20 percent.