BOEING SEES FUTURE OF WORRY, OPTIMISM AIRLINE LOOKING FOR FOREIGN PARTNERS.(Business)

The Boeing Co. winds up the year with plenty to worry about: ailing customers, sagging orders, production cutbacks and disgruntled workers at an impasse in labor talks.

Still, there are new orders on the books and the prospect of more before the year's out. And things aren't as bad as at the competition.

So far this year, Boeing has announced orders for 174 jets worth about $13 billion. That's quite a change from just two years ago, when Boeing took orders for 543 planes worth $47.7 billion, an industry record.

In the late 1980s, Boeing executives worried about finding enough workers to hustle the airplanes out the door. Today, they talk about …