Plane deliveries are tied to company revenues, making them a crucial benchmark for financial performance.
Leadership shakeup
Heading into 2024, Boeing appeared to be poised for a financial comeback, with the MAX having returned to the air and flown for more than three years without significant incident.
But the Alaska Airlines episode revived major questions about Boeing’s operations, ultimately leading to a March announcement that David Calhoun would step down as CEO.
In late July, Boeing named as its new CEO former Rockwell Collins boss Kelly Ortberg, who in October unveiled a plan to cut 10 percent of Boeing’s workforce.
Ortberg has spoken of the need for a “fundamental culture change” at Boeing that includes resetting the company’s difficult relationship with organized labor, as seen in the bruising Pacific Northwest strike of some 33,000 hourly workers.
After rejecting two earlier offers, workers with the Seattle-based International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District 751 approved a new contract in early November that includes a 38 percent wage hike.
Looking ahead
In the months to come, Ortberg’s company expects to complete an acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems, a major supplier that builds fuselages and other parts for Boeing.
The company will also submit a revised criminal settlement with the US Justice Department over the 737 MAX crashes after a federal judge in Texas rejected a prior proposal.
Boeing may also receive recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board on lessons learned from the Alaska Airlines incident.
Ortberg has discussed slimming down Boeing’s scope as part of a turnaround to boost operations and improve financial performance.
Although he has not signaled plans to scale back Boeing’s space program, Ortberg in October pointed to commercial planes and defense as “core” products that “will always stay with the Boeing company.”
Investors would welcome efforts to simplify Boeing’s mission, but trimming the company’s portfolio is “not as needle-moving as getting the 737 assembly line back,” said analyst Owens.
Prior to the strike, Boeing was producing far fewer than the 38 MAX planes per month that were previously approved by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Restoring MAX output will be a priority for Boeing this year, along with clearing out built MAX and 787 Dreamliner planes in inventory that were not delivered, said Owens.
Shares of Boeing fell 2.4 percent in afternoon trading.
© 2025 AFP